List of Illustrations Part I: Wetlands calendar 1. For a few years 2. Rising waters (August/Djilba/late winter) 3. Other place (September/Djilba/early spring) 4. Other life (October/Kambarang/mid-spring) 5. Wetland world (November/Kambarang/late spring) 6. Drying up (December/Birak/early summer) 7. Dry as a rule (January-February/Birk-Bunuru/mid-, late summer) 8.

Still water (March/Bunuru/early autumn) 9. Big puddle (April/Djeran/mid-autumn) 10. Water's back (June/Makuru/early winter) 11. Birds are back (July/Makuru/mid-winter) Part II: The downflow 12. The ballad of black swan lake: Homage to Henry David James 13. The black swan: Homage to hoax writers 14. The blackness of the black swan: Homage to Herman Melville 15. Black swamp city: Homage to Hugh Webb 16.

The body of the earth and the body of Australia: Homage to the human body 17. The way of water: Homage to Master Moy Lin-Shin 18. The seasons: homage to Henry David Thoreau 19. The black arts of sublime technologies: Homage to Henry Adams 20. People and the place of the whistling kite: Homage to Haliastur sphenurus 21. Living black waters: Homage to horrifying marsh monsters 22. Living with the earth: Homage to home-habitat Further Reading.