Dr Annie Bolitho
Aquifier
In drought, spa companies in Melbourne defy water restrictions by ordering spring water from private suppliers. Every football club with a parched field seeks a permit for a bore. In rural catchments increasing use is being made of groundwater. 'If we fail to get the water then it's ruin to the squatter/ for the drought is on the station and the weather's growing hotter/but we're bound to get the water deeper down …' Lines from Banjo Patterson's Song of the Artesian Water. In the face of ongoing drought and climate change, Australia's water resources look increasingly precarious. Underground water is the remaining frontier of exploration. As it becomes increasingly apparent that we don't know enough about surface water resources, wouldn't this be even more the case for the subterranean? If everything says it's time to take more care with above-ground waters, wouldn't we turn with greater interest to what is hidden, unknown? This presentation draws on the draft of my manuscript Water Fortunes, which enquires into my father's life as a planner and engineer, and taps into the conscious and non-rational tensions surrounding inheritance at a personal and social level.
Biography
Dr. Annie Bolitho is a researcher, writer and facilitator. She is author (with Mary Hutchison) of 'Out of the Ordinary, Bringing Communities, and their Audiences to Light,' which has been taken up in fields as diverse as museums and heritage, community health and environmental management. Her work in a policy environment at the Department for Sustainability and Environment in Victoria involved a focus on integrated catchment management. She specialises in the design and facilitation of deliberative decision-making mechanisms, such as citizens' juries. She is currently involved in an ARC project investigating ethics in health research at the Centre for Health and Society at the University of Melbourne, and completing a book from her thesis 'Water Fortunes'.
Email: anniebol@iprimus.com.au