It’s true that most Australians live on the relatively thin strips of fertile land that follow parts of the coastline. The further inland you travel, the fewer people you meet. It’s also a fact that most of the inland region is usually hot and dry and covered with nothing more than low-lying scrub. Unrelenting droughts can last for years. A common perception is that the landscape has always been like this and that it will remain so forever. However, archaeologist Peter Thorley describes how this is not the case, that long ago the region had an abundance of plants and wildlife, with human inhabitants living on the shores of a vast freshwater sea. He further explains how this situation has continually changed, but that still today the Centre is periodically subject to massive flooding – a phenomenon that is bound to be further affected by global warming. But Thorley goes further than simply describing and explaining natural occurrences. Throughout the book he focuses on the ways people – both Indigenous and newcomers – have dealt with the effects of these floods, and how the wisdom they have thus gained may be important for us all.