My teacher was quick to point out that before the advent of the semi-trailer, along with rail, it was river boats that transported wool, timber, and other produce around our nation. Rivers were the lifeblood of our nation.

This was quite a revelation for a child growing up in the 1980s, a time when many of our rivers, especially those in urban areas, were treated as glorified drains.

Thankfully, over the last few decades there has been an renewed appreciation of our waterways, and in the main, today we are looking after them. Or are we?

That's a question at the forefront of my mind as I open up Rivers: The Lifeblood of Australia (NLA Publishing), the latest book by cultural landscape historian Ian Hoskins. Having really enjoyed his previous book, Coast: A History of the New South Wales Edge (New South, 2013), which brilliantly portrays the potted history of the NSW coast, I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into this sequel, billed as "an in-depth survey of ten Australian waterways and river systems".

While many of the usual suspects are featured, including Tasmania's iconic Franklin River and, of course, the Murray River, Hoskins has also highlighted two rivers in the Canberra region. There is no surprise with the first, the fabled Snowy (more about that later) but in a country with so many waterways to explore, Hoskins has generously dedicated an entire chapter to the relatively diminutive 155-kilometre-long Molonglo River, a waterway most people outside the ACT have probably never heard of.

Hoskins follows the Molonglo from its source just above Captains Flat, where tailings from mining operations heavily polluted the river in the mid-1900s to its confluence with the Murrumbidgee River in West Belconnen where the outlet from the ACT's primary sewage treatment plant keeps it flowing briskly in times of drought.

Along the way he points the finger at Colonial treasurer William Balcombe for many of the willows, deemed as weeds these days, which line parts of the Molonglo. "It was Balcombe who probably provided the cuttings for the weeping willows which came to be planted along the Molonglo in an attempt to stabilise the banks," he says. "They were the offspring of trees that shaded the grave of Emperor Napoleon, whom Balcombe befriended on St Helena, half a world away."

He explains the origins of the ancient palaeochannels of the Jerrabomberra Wetlands, remnants of past movements of the Molonglo River across the floodplain, which reach now like long bony fingers into former dairy pasture.

But any self-respecting Canberran is kidding themselves if they think a few wayward willows and a textbook case of ancient river channels is the reason the Molonglo earns a front-row seat alongside the big names such as the Murray, the Ord and the Yarra. No, Hoskins' fascination with the Molonglo rests almost entirely with the river being dammed in the early 1960s to form Lake Burley Griffin - a landmark most Australians are actually familiar with.

At the inauguration of the lake on October 17, 1964, prime minister Robert Menzies, a strong proponent of the lake, believed it "united the city because it has given a centre and a heart to the city". Menzies also spoke of his hope for the lake to become a "haunt for birds, and a haunt for wildlife".

Hoskins doesn't think the lake has lived up to Menzies' expectations. "While the lake's significance is widely accepted, it is a waterway that is perhaps yet to become the 'beating heart' that Sir Robert had predicted," he declares.

As for the hope the lake would be a magnet for wildlife, "Few ... venture into the water made turbid by exotic carp" and instead choose to "cleave to the city's many waterside walking paths," reports Hoskins.

But our city's centrepiece isn't completely lost on Hoskins, who believes there is at least one location Menzies' wish for a haunt for wildlife was fulfilled. "For what would have been the east lake in [Walter Burley] Griffin's much delayed and partially implemented plan finally became the Jerrabomberra Wetlands in 1990. The habitat for extraordinary birds such as Latham's snipe is perhaps the lake's most beautiful feature," he claims.

While some of the thousands of Canberrans who regularly walk and ride around the lake's manicured foreshores along with those who sail and row on its mirror-like waters may beg to differ with Hoskins' cheerless assessment of Lake Burley Griffin, Rivers is a worthy addition to the coffee table or bookshelf.

I might even send my old geography teacher a copy.

The Book: Rivers: The Lifeblood of Australia (NLA Publishing) is available at all good bookshops including at the National Library of Australia. Hardback RRP: $49.99.

Did You Know? Molonglo means 'the sound of thunder' in the language of the Ngunnawal.

Lake trivia: Over two million years ago, when the Molonglo was blocked by rocks and soil from Black Mountain, a natural lake appeared on the site of Lake Burley Griffin. According to Hoskins, "eventually a force of water and erosion re-established the river's westward flow to the Murrumbidgee and the spread of water disappeared."

Don't miss: On November 7 join a ranger on a birdwatching tour at Jerrabomberra Wetlands, where over 170 species of birds have been recorded. Bookings essential, see www.jerrabomberrawetlands.org.au. Ages 12 plus, from $15pp.

Look out for: Like Coast, with Rivers, it's Hoskins' selection of historic photos which makes this book such a joy. They include a rare 1892 image of stone fish traps on the Barwon River and a postcard of a steam locomotive pushing through floodwaters on the Yarra in 1907.

Whenever I paddle the more remote stretches of the Snowy River, I'm puzzled that despite the Snowy Hydro Scheme reducing it to a mere trickle of its once grand flow, we continue to portray the river as an 'untamed and wild place'. I suspect in part, it's due to Banjo Paterson's Man from Snowy River which romanticises the high country. This is a view shared by Ian Hoskins in Rivers - The Lifeblood of Australia in which he labels the Snowy "a river of conflicted legend".

According to Hoskins, pre Snowy Scheme, the river was "so loud that graziers had trouble working their dogs [and] shouted commands were drowned out by a torrent kilometres away".

The Snowy's original power is perhaps best conveyed by the destruction of the McKillops Bridge in 1934. "Fifteen metres high, the bridge was swept away a week before it officially opened," explains Hoskins. Geez, that's some torrent of water.

After his exposé on Lake Burley Griffin in an earlier chapter, the fact that the national capital almost ended up being on the Snowy and not the Molonglo isn't lost in Hoskins' narrative about the Snowy. "The temperature of the water was apparently not a feature that endeared the site to decision-makers," writes Hoskins, referring to a group of Australian senators who while investigating the town's potential as a site for the new capital city famously bathed in the Snowy River at Dalgety in 1902. Their communal dip was in March. Imagine their reaction if they'd dived in during the spring snow melt. Brrr!

Most of us think of the Snowy as a mountain river, but Hoskins also shines a much needed spotlight on the river as a coastal waterway. The river's mouth at Marlo was home for tens of thousands of years to the Krauatungalung people who, according to Hoskins, after European settlement "defended their river and lake country and for this were labelled treacherous". "Killings begat disproportional reciprocation. By 1870, it was estimated that 42 Krauatungalung remained of a possible population of 1000." Tragic.

Clue: Axis

Degree of difficulty: Easy - Medium

Last week: Congratulations to Wendy Van Buuren of Bonner who was first to correctly identify the location of last week's photo, above, as the Lake Tuggeranong Pier, Greenway. I wonder how many other discarded trolleys lay submerged in the lake's murky depths. Not a good look.

How to enter: Email your guess along with your name and suburb to timtheyowieman@bigpond.com. The first email sent after 10am, Saturday October 10, 2020, wins a double pass to Dendy, the Home of Quality Cinema.

Still on rivers, last weekend Scouts ACT constructed this 100-metre-long rope bridge-cum-flying fox across the Murrumbidgee River near the Cotter. "It was a pretty serious piece of engineering, and near the limits of what can be done with just ropes and poles in a couple of days," reports Scouts program adviser Eric Zurcher. And before you race out to give it a go, it's already been dismantled as its construction was part of a training exercise for Leaders and older Scouts (Venturers and Rovers, aged 15 or older). Seriously impressive.

Did You Know? During floods last century, in order to measure flow rates, ACTEW hydrologists would be suspended on a flying fox over the middle of the Molonglo River near Oaks Estate. A similar, more permanent contraption on the Gudgenby River was also used to transport supplies to stranded residents during floods. Apparently some kids even used it to get to school. Heck!