Maitland speaks : the experience of floods / Chas Keys

“This book examines the relationship between floods and the Hunter Valley community of Maitland, New South Wales. Floods have been frequent visitors to Maitland over the decades, and they have done much to condition the built form of the city and the thinking of its residents. Maitland without floods would be a different place, and a place with a different history, from what has evolved and currently exists. The book is to a degree a flood history of Maitland, but it also delves into science, community psychology, sociology, urban planning, local politics, emergency management and local literature and art. It seeks to represent, explain and critique people’s views on floods and the impacts they have had on Maitland’s built-up and rural areas, and to show that the threat of flooding still exists despite the success of the flood mitigation scheme developed decades ago. Maitland’s interaction with flooding is not over, and the lessons derived from that interaction remain relevant today.”--Back cover.