AustLit

'In Mallee Country, a formidable team of historians combines the methods and insights of their respective fields of expertise to craft a sophisticated and nuanced account of the continent's southern mallee lands and its peoples from deep time to the present. Their history maps the making of “mallee country” across semi-arid Western Australia, South Australia, and Victoria, a diverse region of mallee eucalypts transformed by dryland wheat farming. The name of this vast region derives from the Wemba Wemba people of northwestern Victoria, whose term “mali” described the multi-stemmed form of eucalypt that arises from a large lignotuber that sustains the tree during drought and fire.'  (Introduction)

'This book has a place in that honourable environmental history tradition of closely examining a region. As usual within that tradition, a focus on fully understanding a particular place has created a text in which dramatic moments are provided by events such as mice plagues and new tillage regimes. The strength of the book’s writing means these events are genuinely riveting. And that writing is supported by careful and thorough research: this book marks the culmination of a project funded by the Australian Research Council that involved significant Australian historians, and researchers with strong local ties and a clear commitment to country.' (Introduction)

'Mallee Country is a many-layered environmental history of three separate regions extending east from Perth in Western Australia to Swan Hill in Victoria. Their shared name is derived from ‘mali’, a term used by the Wemba Wemba people to describe a growth habit of some eucalypt species in their country in northwestern Victoria. In these semi-arid regions, eucalypts developed a large lignotuber, popularly known as a mallee root, from which multiple stems emerge. The scrubby growth on the surface looks like the main part of the plant, but it can be desiccated by drought, burned by fire or dragged flat by an anchor chain without lasting harm to the organism as a whole, and green shoots arise from the mallee root as soon as conditions improve. This act of mallee-ing, of demonstrating resilience through adaptation, is an underlying motif for Mallee Country.' (Introduction)