When the First Fleet of 11 British ships arrived in Australia in 1788, it included three store ships bringing food, agricultural implements and a supply of seeds. The assumption was that they would feed themselves until they could grow their own crops.
Unfortunately, the soil around Sydney Cove was not suitable and by the time the third fleet arrived in 1791, they were on the brink of famine.
In an effort to grow more food, they cleared land around Parramatta, but they were largely ignorant about soil management and their crops began to fail.
It was a difficult lesson about the importance of soil and reveals a simple equation: without soil, there is no food and a nation that neglects its soils places itself in peril.
There are even suggestions that it was a factor in the fall of the Roman empire.
Indeed, it's hard to even imagine life on land without soil.
It is surprisingly difficult to define what soil is because it occurs in so many different forms, from thin desert sands to clay and fertile loams. You could argue that the sediment on the bottom of a river or sea is soil.
The simplest definition is that soil is a blend of five ingredients: minerals, organic matter, living things, air and water.
It's easy to overlook the fact that soil is more than something that sticks to your shoes. It is, in fact, a living ecosystem that can be as rich as any rainforest or mangrove swamp.
Modern agriculture has become exceedingly dependent on fertilisers - especially nitrogen and phosphorus.
Nitrogen is produced from natural gas, which is mostly methane. The natural gas is combined with nitrogen from the air to make fertiliser.
Fortunately, there are natural processes that also produce nitrogen. This is primarily done by soil microorganisms. It's an energy-intensive process but in many cases it's assisted by a symbiotic relationship with plants such as clovers and peas.
Producing phosphate fertiliser is more difficult. While some can be extracted from sewerage, most is a product of mining.
With the focus on fertilisers, there are huge benefits in bringing life back into the soil.
That includes worms, bacteria, crickets and even fungus. In Australia, our wombats and bettongs are nature's soil engineers.
Introduced grasses tend to have shallower roots than native varieties while the humble dung beetle recycles nutrients back into the ground.
The Fuzzy Logic Science Show is at 11am Sundays on 2xx 98.3FM.
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