| Summary: | "Australia faces a catastrophe. For 200 years, our farmers have been using methods developed in European climates and landforms which, in Australia, have wreaked havoc. On the driest inhabited continent on earth, the delicate balance between the land, its climate and inhabitants has been disrupted. Where once our country was able to survive long droughts and to prevent salinity, it is now on the brink of irreparable damage. And it's not just a problem for farmers - it's starting to affect our cities. Can we pull ourselves back from the brink? With a lifetime's experience of working the land, Peter Andrews has seen the landscape change. He has watched and experimented with the movement of water. He has observed the importance of biodiversity - weeds included. And he's concluded that to save Australia we need to return the landscape to its original systems. From his observations, a radical new approach has developed. Long rejected by farmers, scientists and politicians, Peter's theories are being taken more and more seriously - because his theories work. 'Back from the Brink' tells Peter Andrews's story and explains how we can, if we choose, save Australia from the mistakes of the past." -- Publisher's website.
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| Contents: | Foreword / John Williams -- Foreword / Gerry Harvey -- 1. This land of ours -- 2. Salinity: a catastrophe ahead -- 3. Early days -- 4. A lesson in biodiversity -- 5. Tarwyn Park -- 6. The remaking of Tarwyn Park -- 7. Australia as it used to be -- 8. A hot, dry and very flat continent -- 9. The truth about salinity -- 10. More about salinity -- 11. Biodiversity -- 12. Nature's way: loops, cycles, feedbacks -- 13. The magic of mulch -- 14. A layout for a sustainable farm -- 15. Fertilisers or just soil stimulants? -- 16. Weeds are allies, not enemies -- 17. Willows: unjustly condemned -- 18. Native trees aren't so sacred after all -- 19. Hedgerows: an old idea but a good one -- 20. Australia's deserts are all man-made -- 21. Hydrology: fancy term, simple concept -- 22. Streams that seemed to defy gravity -- 23. Contouring: an option that works -- 24. Erosion: our landscape's wasting disease -- 25. Farm dams: should we damn them or not? -- 26. The rights and wrongs of irrigation -- 27. Hope yet for the Murray and the Darling -- 28. Some Q&As -- Epilogue.
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