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Water, as much as war or wealth, shapes our history.

PhD candidate Ruth Morgan is about to make history herself, presenting her environmental history research on Western Australian water issues at the prestigious Western History Dissertation Workshop in California in June.

The workshop, supported by Southern California, California- Davis, Stanford and Yale Universities, is at the Huntington Library, one of the world's great cultural, research and education centres. The private not-for-profit centre hosts leading humanities researchers from around the world. Ruth is the first Australian to be invited to this workshop.

One of her colleagues in the School of Humanities, Assistant Professor Ethan Blue, convened a recent workshop on Comparative Wests at UWA . Following that, one of the visitors from Stanford persuaded his western history partners to offer a place at the workshop to an Australian student - and Ruth won the place.

She will present the first chapter of her thesis, which follows the water and climate histories of the settlement of WA from the first colony in King George Sound in 1826 to Federation. It covers the huge learning process of the colonists as they adapted to the climate patterns and water availability in the southwest, as well as the impacts of gold and disease on the development of the Swan River Colony. It culminates with the construction of C Y O'Connor's famous Goldfields Pipeline.

"Ethan's workshop on Comparative Wests revealed how the concept of the ‘west' sheds light on both American and Australian histories," Ruth said. "These are histories of frontiers, borders, displacement, environmental change - it's not just about cowboys and the wild west!"

After she completed her degrees in economics and arts at UWA , Ruth realised her interest in history and approached Associate Professor Andrea Gaynor about doing an Honours project in history. "I wanted it to be relevant and Andrea sent me away to think of a topic. I came up with the idea of studying Perth's water history, not realising that she was an environmental historian, so it was a perfect fit," she said.

This study took Ruth into a chapter in Perth's environmental history. She looked at how Western Australians thought about water in the 1970s, the impact of water restrictions on their attitudes and behaviours, and the long-term effects of these policies.

"I wanted to expand on it for my PhD, which is looking at how people in the south-west region understand climate variability and its relationship with water resources and availability."

Her research spans economics, culture, literature, gardens and politics.

"People ask how I deal with the science side of it," she said. "But thankfully I don't have to understand the scientific procedures. Rather, I'm looking at how, why and when particular scientific research was done."

She asks why we are facing the challenge of declining water supplies and how we are dealing with it. She does not pass judgment on the science or the decisions of the past, but looks at the how of now.

"The workshop is a wonderful opportunity for an intense couple of days with some of the best historians from some of the best universities in the US. It comes at a good time for me, as I hope to submit my thesis in August, so I will be able to see if my work is resonating with the right people and if I am on the right track."

Ruth's research is supervised by Associate Professor Gaynor and Associate Professor Charlie Fox.

Published in UWA News , 30 May 2011