What is Soakage?
A '''soakage''', or '''soak''', is a source of [[water]] in the [[desert]]s of [[Australia]]. It is called a soak because the water generally [[wikt:soak|soaks]] into the [[sand]]y ground, and is stored below. They sometimes form part of an [[Wadi|ephemeral river]] or [[drainage basin|drainage system]]. Soakages were traditionally important sources of water for [[Indigenous Australians|Aboriginal people]] in the desert, because they are the most reliable sources in times of [[drought]]. Knowing the exact location of each soakage was very valuable knowledge. In the 19th century, the [[explorer]]s [[Peter Warburton]] and [[David Carnegie]] wrote that they had chased down Aboriginal people with [[camel]]s and captured and chained them to force them to reveal their secret sources of water.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Thomson|first=Donald F.|title=The Bindibu Expedition: exploration among the desert Aborigines of Western Australia|journal=The Geographical Journal|volume=128|issue=1|date=March 1962|pages=1&ndash;14|publisher=The Royal Geographical Society|doi=10.2307/1794105|jstor=1794105|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1794105|id=Q&nbsp;306.0899915&nbsp;THO}}</ref> ==References== {{reflist}} {{geo-stub}} [[Category:Geography of Australia]] [[Category:Indigenous Australian history]] [[Category:Water]] [[Category:Aquifers]] [[Category:Agriculture in Australia]]