Thursday 26 April, 5.15 for 5.30pmConference Room, National Library of Australia, free Central Australia is synonymous with extreme heat, dust, flood, drought and cold. Energising and debilitating, dangerous and invigorating; the climate of arid Australia had a profound effect on the minds and bodies of settler colonists in the first half of the twentieth century. Drawing on the papers, images and maps of the Australian Inland Mission collection, this talk will explore the physical and emotional effects of extreme weather and the way people understood and adapted to these conditions. National Library Fellow Dr Rebecca Jones is an historian of climate, environment and health. She has held academic positions at the Australian National University and Monash University and is the author of Slow Catastrophes: Living with Drought in Australia (Monash University Publishing).   Dr Rebecca Jones’s fellowship at the National Library of Australia is supported by Deidre and Kevin McCann and the Macquarie Group Foundation. Bookings appreciated 02 6262 1271 or at the NLA website