Table of Contents

• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Conversions
• Prologue – the best hidden river in the world
• 1: Geography – Physical and human
• 2: Geology – A skeleton of sandstone
• 3: How the Hawkesbury came to be an estuary
• 4: Hydrology – Floods, droughts and river regulation
• 5: The vexed matter of water quality
• 6: Biota – Plants, animals and mythical creatures
• 7: Jewels in the crown – The protected areas
• 8: An Aboriginal river
• 9: European discovery and early exploration
• 10: European occupation and exploitation
• 11: Barrier I – Road and ferry crossings
• 12: Barrier II – Railway crossings
• 13: Conduit – Boats and shipping
• 14: A strategic river – Defending the northern gateway to Sydney
• 15: The river as muse – Artists, musicians and writers inspired by the Hawkesbury
• 16: Epilogue – Whither the Hawkesbury?
• References
• Index

About the Author

Paul Boon is a Professor in the Institute for Sustainability and Innovation at Victoria University, Melbourne, and has published extensively on aquatic ecology and management. He is an Associate Editor of the journals Marine and Freshwater Research and Pacific Conservation Biology, a past President of the Australian Society for Limnology, and serves on numerous science advisory committees. The Hawkesbury stole his heart as a boy; he spent his childhood and adolescence on the river and conducted field studies for his BSc(Hons) project on mangroves at Brooklyn.