You Could Live Entirely Off Of Groundwater And Solar In Most Of Central Australia - Tumblr Posts

holy shit this has always pissed me off, like if you look at Australian geography and ecology its actually not that bad at all? the "scary" spiders and snakes are literally just attracted to areas that end up being common in american-style homes (pools, garages, etc) which leads to more encounters in detached suburban housing...

and also! the whole "australia is a barren deadly desert" thing? that's not really true either! even now when people talk about this there's some kind of belief that the land was only significant like, culturally. most people don't realise but Australia has a massive groundwater reserve which was known and used by the nations that lived in those areas. and by "massive", I mean:

MASSIVE. the great artesian basin alone, for reference, is estimated to hold 3 times the volume of ALL OF THE GREAT LAKES.

the myth that the entire country is barren and deadly or whatever is just used to justify the mining and farming industries' ridiculous claim of quite literally trillions of dollars worth of land and resources

okay I’ll say it nicer:

australia was colonised according to the myth of terra nullius (or empty land). ever since the very early days of colonialism, the land has been framed as something untameable and unliveable. this has justified acts of violence against the first peoples here, in that they are seen as non-people. it has justified the destruction of sacred land in the goal of making australia look more european. (an example: our capital city contains a man-made lake that is now nothing better than a fetid carp pond. it’s disgusting and unnatural). basically, the idea of “taming australia’ has justified endless harm

“everything in australia is weird and dangerous” is not just some silly meme phrase, it is something that arcs back to the very beginning of white settlers laying claim to ‘australia’. and personally I am very sick of seeing it thrown around like it means nothing