pool

Rivers project

Project: Rivers project

from Gretchen Miller, 18.03.10

Calling for meditations on a river: your memories and stories of time by the river's edge.

Find uploaded content here.

Rivers are Australia’s heart blood. Not only in a practical, foodbowl sense, but also metaphysically, culturally and socially. They’re sites for contemplation, for play, and to learn about the world and its rich biodiversity.

For the first time in a decade, those who live and work on the tributaries of the mighty Murray Darling system are either flooded out, or awaiting the water to flow slowly down the dry river beds and bring life back to their patch. Even the irrigators can't take all the water of the March downpours. 

But the rivers of the south are still in trouble – a single flood event will not recover the skeletons of the river red gums that line the Lachlan River.  Nor will it necessarily get down to the Coorong, at the mouth of the Murray, to flush out the fragile wetlands that have long been starved of water.

In the north of Australia it’s a different story. Rivers such as the Daly, in the Northern Territory, are rich with fish and birdlife as well as indigenous heritage and are relatively uncleared. But they too are under pressure as first time decisions about land clearing allowances are being made in the Territory’s Parliament. Irrigation licences are still up for grabs, tapping into vital aquifers and groundwater that are an invisible, yet essential part of the river’s existence.

CALL OUT

So, we’re calling for your memories, and memorials, of times by the river. Any Australian river.  We’d love your celebrations of times spent on the river, descriptions of 'your' river, love stories set on the river bank...  Your thoughtful observations of how the river you know has changed, in sound, in vegetatation, in wildlife…  words of sage advice to those in tropical Australia who still have time to work their rivers wisely ... for words of sorrow at loss, and words of celebration at recovery, of the waterways that hold significance in your life.

To contribute, first join Pool.  Then click on the Inspired, Upload button, and fill in the appropriate form.

Find uploaded content here, and the pieces I have so far selected as interesting, here

The best entries will be used in a radio feature documentary broadcast on ABC Radio National, exploring the Daly River and its future, with the mistakes of the Murray Darling management in mind.  Images will be featured in a photo gallery on Radio National online, and on the big screen in a showing  at Federation Square, Melbourne.

Due date:  September 15, 2010

Important - for more details including duration, and terms and conditions, please click here.

For discussion to ask questions etc, please go here

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