Waterpeople Podcast
Stories about the aquatic experiences that shape us.
Listen with Lauren L. Hill and Dave Rastovich as they talk story with some of the most adept waterfolk on the planet.
Waterpeople is a gathering place for our global ocean community to dive into the themes of watery lives lived well: ecology, adventure, community, activism, science, egalitarianism, inclusivity, meaningful play, a sense of humour. And, surfing, of course.
Waterpeople Podcast
The Rivers Run: Theory of Change (pt. 2)
What's a river to you?
After cyclone Alfred crossed Australia's East Coast earlier this year, tens of thousands of fish died in our local river, Dave got a persistent staph infection and our community tousled with a question: what's wrong with our river? And what can we do about it ?
How does change happen when we, and the world, seem stuck in our ways?
We’re curious about how change happens – and what people are doing on the ground, in our community, to create the causal pathways to shift social and environmental ideas, norms, and policy.
The first episode heard from organisers and attendees of the 2025 Waterwomen Camp Out put on by the NGO Surfers for Climate.
In today's episode, we head to Richmond River Fest 2025, a month-long celebration of the rivers, cultures, and communities of the Northern Rivers put on by Richmond Riverkeeper.
We hear from marine scientist Liz Hawkins, who reveals how our resident Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins use the Richmond as a kitchen and nursery. She connects river health to coastal resilience.
Then, lifelong commercial fisher Mark lays down hard truths about the Teven/Tuckean barrage and failed floodgates. The fix is practical and proven.
Revive The Northern Rivers founder Tom Wolff speaks of his seventh generation connection to the river and gives Dave a guiding question that fills his sails.
Dave shares the story behind one of his projects this year, The Rivers Run. It's a 50-kilometer run–paddle–swim designed to recruit surfers, divers, and sailors into tree-planting, mangrove restoration, and on-the-ground river care with OzFish and Revive the Northern Rivers.
Along the Cape Byron Marine Park and a UNESCO-recognized Hope Spot, we remember why this coastline still inspires—and what it demands in return.
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Listen with Lauren L. Hill & Dave Rastovich
Sound + Video Engineer: Ben J Alexander
Theme song: Shannon Sol Carroll
Additional music by Kai Mcgilvray + Ben J Alexander
Join the conversation: @Waterpeoplepodcast
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Welcome to Water People, a podcast about the aquatic experiences that shape who we become back on land. I'm your host, Lauren Hill, joined by my partner Dave Rastevich. Here we get to talk story with some of the most interesting and adept water folk on the planet. We acknowledge the Bunjalong Nation, the traditional custodians of the land and waters where we work and play, who have cared for this sea country for tens of thousands of years. Respect and gratitude to all First Nations people, including elders, past, present, and emerging. This season is supported by Patagonia, whose purpose-driven mission is to use business to save our home planet.
SPEAKER_04:Once it crossed the coast up near Brisbane, all that rain on the southern side of the storm, which was sort of the more severe side of the storm, came down in our northern rivers region. And you know, typically that's our wet season. We've kind of prepared for months, some years, where it just doesn't stop raining month after month, and within those months you can have a storm like this. So it wasn't too out of the ordinary, though the storm surge and the volume of fresh water coming down into the river systems was pretty extreme. And so what we saw was actually in our local Richmond River, which is just a few kilometres away from where we live, and from some of the most celebrated surfing spots in Australia, you know, this is the land of Long Right Point, and a lot of us live here mostly because of those beautiful waves and the incredible flow of sand and flow of water that comes along this coast interacting with river systems and headlands and beach breaks and offshore reefs. And so when that volume of fresh water started moving through these really large river systems and the Richmond River is enormous with you know 400 square kilometres of floodplain within it. The river was filled with sediment from industrial ag farming practices, washing down from where there used to once be many trees holding the landscape together. All those trees have been removed and replaced with sugar cane or macadamia plantations, or just left with cattle roaming. And so that sediment coming into the streams and creeks and drains is bringing with it a lot of soil and a lot of the contaminants from industrial ag practices. So we actually saw these events, black water events. It's called Blackwater, where essentially tens of thousands of fish were dying in our local river system, and it got so bad that the local town that is, you know, right smack bang in the centre of the Richmond River, which is Ballinar, stunk of dead fish and basically became like a disaster zone, really. Just disgusting water pouring out of our creeks and streams into the main river system and then out into the ocean. And that's where one day when we were walking along the beach behind where we live, which is near Lennox Head and Seven Mile Beach, uh, when we have storms like this, we like to sort of comb the beach and look for anything that might have washed up that shouldn't be there over the years. That's been things like you know, barrels of pesticide that have been washed off of farms into the river and then down along the coast filled with gnarly chemicals, all kinds of bales of mulch and feed wrapped in plastic, fencing materials, and also just like urban rubbish entering stormwater systems and washing down streets and into the river. So we just went for a walk, and when we did that, I just got a tiny nick on the bottom of my right foot, just under my little toe, like ridiculously small cut. But we were walking along the shoreline where the brown foam essentially sits on that high tide line when we get these sort of big weather events, and you can smell the contaminants in that brown foam. Everyone's urged to not swim or surf anywhere near that foam for you know serious reasons. Mostly if you have that water entering your ears or in your mouth or up your nose, you're gonna get really crook. But walking on the beach, I didn't really think of that. I thought, you know, we're just on the high tide line. What harm can come from that? But harm did come from that. And within about a week, my foot swelled right up. My tiny pinky was nearly as big as my big toe, really fat and swollen and like a purple colour, and uh and then my joints started to ache, my knee behind my knee, in my groin, in my armpit, so my like glands started to really hurt, and my head started to spin, and I literally just felt like I had blood poisoning, which I've had before from having you know bad cuts in tropical areas that have just become infected. And I didn't realise that this could happen here though, where we live. We've never had a history of getting that kind of level of illness and sickness from rainy and freshwater events happening where the water turns brown. But a tipping point was reached this year in 2025 where many of us became ill and the biggest fish kills happened in our river system here that any of us have seen. And so, anyway, I ended up in hospital, uh, had three days of having antibiotics intravenously put in my body to beat the infection. And it was there while I was lying in the bed. You know, if anyone's been in hospital and receiving drugs or things like antibiotics, you've got a bit of time. You're sitting there thinking about how did I get here, what can I do to avoid this happening again. And it was in that moment that I realized I I didn't know enough about our river systems. I didn't know enough about the problem of toxicity in our river systems. We live in this beautiful area where there's not too much humanity and we look around and we think we live in a green, clean ecosystem, especially when we have somewhere like the Gold Coast up the road where there's extreme development and a lot of people come from the Gold Coast to visit where we live in the northern rivers to get some space and to breathe a bit easier. But really, the truth of it is that we live in an industrialized space here. There is industrial-scale agricultural practices all around us that are spraying and altering the landscape in ways that you know we're now really starting to understand are very harmful not only for the ecosystem but also for ourselves. And so I realize I need to seek out people who are working on this issue, people who could answer those sort of questions like what is going on with the river, what can we do about it, how can we avoid this happening next wet season? And so naturally the surfing community around here is pretty large, and within that community there is bound to be people working on this issue, so I I seek them out, and that is Tom Wolfe, a young fellow from Lennox Head area, who multi-generations in this region and a good perspective on how the Richmond River once flourished and was thriving, and what state it's in now. And then he also led me to meet Zoe White, who works for Ozfish, a great organization working on river health, freshwater, saltwater issues around the country. And basically we just started yarning. Uh, what happened from there was a kind of education just through having cups of tea and surfs together. Really, what they shared with me was that there is a lot of people studying our river systems in this area. There is a lot of data, there is a lot of understanding around the issues. However, there isn't a lot of community engagement, there isn't a lot of volunteers, there isn't a lot of action, even though the diagnosis, the the understanding of what's happening to these great rivers, this this enormous river system here, especially the Richmond River. And so what I realized in those conversations was that that need of having more people involved was perhaps something I could work on. So I basically came up with the idea of bringing people together from my circles, which are the surfing, diving, sailing, and adventuring sort of circles in the area, and even growers to a degree, farmers and stuff. And we basically came up with the idea to do this event called the Rivers Run, where we would essentially experience in one day, in one go, the two rivers that hem us in, the two rivers that create this type of territorial boundary to a degree of our region, and that is the Brunswick River and the Richmond River. Within those two rivers is an incredible Cape Byron Marine Park, unbelievable oceanic territory, just a mixing area, nothing gully, Julian Rocks, the island off of Byron Bay. Most people would have seen if they've come to this area, is one of the most celebrated diving spots in Australia, if not the world, where you see all the creatures from the Coral Sea coming down and swimming around and migrating here. You see so many creatures from the temperate waters down south coming and mixing here, and we're right in that line where the two worlds sort of combine. And so, because of that biodiversity, this area has been deemed a global hope spot given that there is so many great things existing in our waters here, and such a great uh engaged community when it comes to the ecology and the story of this space. So, what I wanted to do was have us run, paddle, and swim between the two rivers, roughly 50 kilometres, and in that there was the intention to basically get some young, fit and able volunteers aware of the work that Ozfish, the river keepers, and Tom with Revive the Northern Rivers are doing so that when they do their plant outs to help the rivers and to try and reinstall the filtration systems via all those trees, those mangroves and the grasses that were once everywhere along these river systems, that we could get plenty of people there who are fit, young and able to do the the work and do the hard work, raise a few dollars, but also just light up our community when it comes to understanding how beautiful our space is. So that's what we did. We created the Rivers Run. It carried out in August with a nice west wind and some good challenges rounding the Cape of Byron with a lot of us hitting the wall basically, and a few of us completing the whole challenge, if many of us not doing the whole challenge, which has set us up to do this every year and keep bringing more and more people into this way of celebrating our coastal region and also tuning in and seeing how we can assist with the local groups that are working on River Health, Coastal Health. So the River Runs event was also aimed at beating the drum and helping to make some noise when it comes to the Riverfest event, which was an annual event on the shores of the Richmond River in the heart of Ballinar, where specialists, cultural leaders, fishers, surfers, scientists, conservationists would meet and basically strengthen their relationships and inform each other and inform the public who are very concerned about what we can do, what state the river's in, and where we can move forward and uh start to clean the river up. So what we have is a snippet of the Riverfest event that happened in September, towards the end of September in 2025, and we hear from Liz Hawkins, who is local dolphin whisperer, the most knowledgeable person when it comes to the dolphin communities, the residential dolphin communities that live along our coastline that we share lineups with that we marvel at when we're out surfing, and they are underneath us, all around us, and sometimes over us in the air, jumping out of waves. Liz informs us on the state of the rivers in relation to dolphin community health. We also hear from a local fisher, longtime fishing family representative Mark, who tells it how it is when it comes to the issues with the Richmond River and how we can move forward and get busy doing the reparation and the revival work for the river. And then we also hear from Tom Wolfe, who runs the Revive the Northern Rivers group, who is constantly writing beautifully and eloquently with insights into river health and what we can do as concerned coastal custodians. He shares his perspective and really just lights us up. The idea of being able to attend a community event not long after such a tragedy as a Blackwater event, mass fish kills, many of us getting sick like I did with staph infections, the collapse of oyster fisheries, the stress and struggle of fisheries in general, the struggle of farmers inundated with water and drainage issues. You know, there's so much going on in our local ecology and our local culture that these sort of events like Riverfest just feel so important to attend and also so important to record and share like this, so that maybe others can learn from us and hopefully others can share with us what they've done in similar situations with river health around the world because this is not an isolated problem.
SPEAKER_00:So thanks everyone for coming out today and celebrating this amazing river system on World Rivers Day. And you know, this river is part of the arteries of the earth. It's like all of these kinds of waterways, they're part of maintaining these healthy systems and healthy oceans. And as we know, we live on a blue planet. My own journey with this river started over 20 years ago. I started the first uh dolphin and whale research in Ballina area. Uh, and over those years, there's been a lot of changes, but part of my research here began to understand how these dolphins use this area and this river and their systems. What do they need in their own wildlife to survive? What areas are important to them? And how does it work within their own social systems and populations? And what does that mean when they work out along the coast as well? So, part of my work over 20 years has been to understand the structure of our coastal dolphin populations and understand areas that are of importance to our resident dolphin communities. Here in the Richmond, we have one particular community of resident dolphins where this area is of critical importance to their survival. It is in critical importance for their survival over multiple generations. Our dolphins are non-migratory, unlike our great whales, that we are having an amazing whale season, and I hope everyone's enjoying watching our 50,000 whales cruising past. But our dolphins don't do that. They live here year-round. The Richmond River and the coast here is part of a core habitat for our resident Indo-Pacific bottleneze dolphins. That species in particular is globally listed as near-threatened. So a lot of us who have the privilege of living along this coast here often think, oh, I see dolphins really regularly. That's cool. But that's actually really significant because we now know that a lot of our coastal dolphin species are in decline. And that includes this particular species in a global context. So to see our little dolphins here, part of our work has been to look at how healthy these animals are and how they use this habitat and what's their home range. So for our little resident dolphins here, don't they range very far. They'll range from just south of the Valinabar right up to Lenox Head, is the northern boundary, before we have another resident community where they meet up there. So this area is what I call their home or their house. The Richmond River is part of their kitchen. This area is any major waterway for dolphins, is often a major or a significant feeding habitat. And that's because of the fish that live here. It's the fish nursery that is of importance. It's particularly important for the mother and calves of our resident community. And that's because, as all mummers know, we use a lot more energy if we've got dependent children. And it's the same for our dolphins. We share so much with their way of life, even though we're terrestrial beings. So for our dolphins, this is their kitchen. And I like to think of major waterways like this as they should be like opening your parents' fridge. There should always be food in your parents' fridge. For these guys, they need to, it's always predictable that prey is here. However, for our Richmond River, that's not always the case, as we know. So part of our work over these years has been to try and map out what it means for these dolphins to have a habitat in decline and in unhealthy condition and how that transfers to the higher order predators for our resident dolphins. Now, over the years, the Richmond River, as we know, has declined significantly. We know, even though that, you know, our science is still, I'm still crunching numbers, I'm still trying to get the samples up, I'm still, you know, working on all of that. But we know that these dolphins are highly, highly vulnerable. They're one of the most vulnerable communities of dolphins throughout New South Wales. We know there's an increase in incidence of viruses and diseases in our local dolphins here. We know that some of them have higher levels of toxicity as well. We know that the use of this habitat has changed over time and not to the positive. We know that this area is not just important for this generation of dolphins, but some of these dolphins I've known now for over 20 years. I know that their children have hit have been here. The next generation are relying on this river as well. And for dolphins, it's not a case of, oh, there's an unhealthy habitat, so they're going to move out. It's not like that because their connection to this country and the connection to their home and their kitchen, their bedroom, which is just outside the river mouth here, is so significant and so strong. They'll often remain in these places despite those stresses. So over the years of watching these animals and getting to know these individuals, I've also noticed that our communities here, our human community, has become more aware of this river and the state of this river. To have a conversation like what we're having today is so fabulous because a lot of action starts. Starts with these conversations and increasing awareness, but also can increase the connection to the arteries that help keep us alive as well. For our communities that are now becoming very concerned about the state of these rivers, and we do increasingly hear what we can do to help this river, what can I do to actually make change? We've heard this and I've heard that story increase over time. This river here also connects, as I keep mentioning, to our marine habitats along the coast and our marine protected areas. They're all connected, both near and far. So what we've actually done to harness those questions within our community and to help our community become more empowered and directed to take action and understand how you can take action. We've uh created the Byron Bay Hope Spot, which is a globally significant and recognized area, recognized for its biodiversity, value, cultural significance, and also our community caring for this country. The Byron Bay Hope Spot extends from Wardell up the river here, all down all the way down the Richmond, across our coastline, includes the Cape Byron Marine Park, and it will extend up to the Tweed border as well very shortly. This space is not government-owned, it's owned by us, the people and the animals that live here as well. Within this space, we want you to own it. You own this hope. You own the power to do something about caring for this country as well. Within the Byron Bay Hope Spot, we have uh lots of different initiatives, uh, both that we're organizing within Dolphin Research Australia and Ocean Education and Conservation, uh, with different workshops happening at different times of year. But we also have a collective of the Friends of Hope Spots, which include uh lots of organizations that are here as well. The idea is that you as a community can look at the Hope Spot, you can join in on any of the actionables that different organizations are doing and get involved. But if you can't, that's okay as well, because we've got lots of different tips and lots of things that and suggestions that you can do in your everyday lives to make this place a better place and look after it. Including the multiple generations of grandmothers and daughters and mothers within our dolphin communities as well. So we encourage you all, you can uh come to our stall or look at the Byron Bay Hopespot.org.au website to find out more. We've got some information at our stall. You can take the Ocean Champion Pledge as well. But do get out there and support it because it is all up to us to look after this country. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02:I guess I've been here quite some time. I grew up in Balloner in a family fishing family, commercial fishing with trawlers. I remember there was probably nearly 30 trawlers in Ballinor when the car wharf was down near the RSL club. Other morning before school, myself, a number of kids we used to get down, we used to herring jig for herring, we'd sell them to the bait shops. The river was absolutely alive. There wasn't a day you couldn't see the bottom of the pylons. We used to scuba dive, we used to snorkel all along here with spearfish. It was uh wonderful. I've seen the decline I've seen in the river since I'm gonna say, even just from the 80s to 90s, is unbelievable. Our river is terrible. And I'm gonna put the blame out. The Takeyan Barrage. Now it's something that people are starting to realize recently. You can't cut the lungs out of a person and expect you to keep breathing. Okay, that's what we've done with the Take and Barrage. We've shut the gates. It's I'll stand correct, it's around 900 hectares, I believe, of eco saltwater ecosystem. Fish used to breed there, it was alive. There's stories I've spoken to people back in the 70s that they said the barrage, if you were out there, they called it the Kakadu of the South. And they akinned it to an aeroplane landing, and that was the mullet showering and the fish showering through there. If you go there now, it's completely rotten, it's a rotten stink tank. It's filthy, it stinks, and the acid coming out of there actually burns your hands. And I know because my hand, you can have a look at my hands, they're burnt from the acid there. And we've had numerous studies after study after study, and it all points to the same thing. Tamara Smith, I wish you were here. Sharon Codweller, I wish you were here. I spoke to them, everyone agrees, every single person agrees that Takeyan Barrage is a problem. Now I'm yet to I've yet to see in my lifetime as a commercial fisherman when we've had indigenous, recreational, government, all types of agency and people all agreeing on one thing that the barrage has to go. But here we are and it's still there. And I don't understand why something isn't being done. Now, I know it comes down to the farmers, and I'm not thinking it's not the farmers' fault. They've been given a little bit of extra land on a floodplain, don't farm on a floodplain. It's not their fault they've been allowed to do that, but it needs to be compensated, it needs to be purchased back, and we need to return it. Wetlands needs to be wetlands, okay? Creeks and drains needs to be creeks. That's what we need. We want to recover the river, we've got to start the lungs back up again. Okay, we've got to get the kidneys back, we've got to get all the filters back, and we what we can we can do it. Now, as Craig said, that the stuff down at the Hexham, what they've done down there, is amazing. It's and they've basically opened the gates. That's what they've done. They've done a great job. I've spoken to blokes that have been working on this for 30 years. I don't believe I can spend 30 years saying we need to open the gates when everyone already agrees to it. It needs to be done. So when one gentleman asked a question before, he said, What can he do to assist with the river? I'd my answer would be grab yourself a grinder and go and cut the gates off. I'll applaud you because, in essence, Lee, honestly, that's what needs to be done. They need to go. Okay, so if you want to know what you can do to help save the river, every time you get on that Facebook, whatever social media, bang on about it. I can show you a thousand photos. There's fish up there, they've got their tumours hanging out of them, they've got fins falling off. It's disgusting, okay? And then the water that's coming out of there is the cause. I'm not saying it's the entire cause, but it's a really good portion of it. Okay, and you've got guys like Osfished, you've got all these organisations. Now, you know, many years ago, I've seen a big swing with the commercial fishing. Many years ago, the commercial fishing would get blamed for everything. Okay, if it's a hot day, the commercial fishing get blamed. It's too hot, it's too cold. It's always our fault. It's not. And people I'm seeing a turn round, it's not our fault. We're a sustainable fishery now. We're stamped, we've done everything we can. Our gear, the the restrictions we've got, and everything is there. We're on your side. We want the river. Okay, and it's in our interest to have that river healthy. It needs to be healthy for everyone. Okay, if it's healthy for everyone, it's healthy for us. You've got a fantastic commercial fishing industry here that's just been strangled off by the Takay and Baraj and the issues that are going on there. So, look, I haven't got much more to say, I guess, with that. I I'd everything Craig said, I'm 100% behind. And support them guys. And if you get any chance to talk to a member, any of them, guys, just throw the support behind getting rid of it. And as at the end of the day, like everything, it comes down to money. The government needs to step it up. Now, the government done the wrong thing, okay, and they've allowed this to happen. They need to fix the job. Okay. Another thing is Rouse Water. Now, Rouse Water isn't really accurate in what they say. Now, Rouse Water only recently promoted on Facebook that they manage floodgates and how what a good job they do. They don't. They don't work. Now, the floodgates, all the mechanisms to open the floodgates have been taken away. They can't be opened. They're not used. Now, an active floodgate, if you look up what an active floodgate is, an active floodgate is a floodgate that's open to allow the flow of fish, marine life, and salt water into the areas. Upon a flood, the gates are shut, so when the water comes down the river, it can't push back up into the barrage. It doesn't occur. But they get around this. And what they do is they've got a thing called a sluice door. Can anyone guess how big the sluice door is for 900 hectares of shark, mullet, all the other fish that have got to swim through it on a tidal flow? How big do you think the sluice door is they use? Have you seen a full scap piece of paper? I'm not joking, it's 30 centimetres by 30 centimetres, is the sluice door on the gates up here at our barrage. That's fact. That's what they claim is an open floodgate. Now, if you go up there, the floodgates will be as long as this tent and feed that whole system when you've got that open. And to make it better, it's actually broken and it has been for about six months, and it isn't even to be open and closed. So, Rouse Council, yeah, you're making some big claims, it's not quite accurate. Okay, you're not managing the floodgates and they need to go. So I I think that it's a it's a bit of a feel-good to make it look like it's happening. It's not, it's not. They need to be fixed. Half the floodgates that are managed by the Rouse Um Council, they're in charge of, so that means they have to open and close them. They don't because they can't. The other half, the farmers are up to them. I'm pretty sure the farmers don't do it. And I go up there in my boat, most of the cables are broken, most of them don't even have opening doors, and they're just sat there. So, as Craig said, what happens is you can imagine our river, and you've got a great big area of ecosystem of salt water. Then when it flows up, now on top of that, salt, but just by a little one on the side, um, acid soil. Acid soil and acid water, salt water neutralises it. Simple as that. Put the salt water there, it neutralises it done. Great big ecosystem, and close the gate, it turns to a big stinking rock tank, fills up with water. When it gets to a certain height, and we get so much pressure, the gates just open themselves and all that stinking filter. It's poured out in the river, straight down past near the sugar mill, out the barrage, and down here, and that's what we see. We can have festivals, we can we can celebrate with all the things until that goes and that's fixed up, nothing's gonna change. Okay, we're still gonna see, and it's just gonna get worse. It really is. So thank you for your support, and I'd like everyone I do a few truth factors here on what's actually going on with the river. And if you think it's bad, times it by 20, because it's a hell of a lot worse. Okay, thank you.
unknown:A lot of us can focus on that one.
SPEAKER_03:So the question is, is there a petition? Not currently, like there is a lot of work that's being done. I think probably the best way to start is you literally can just Google the Tekian and maybe like Ozfish, because Ozfish has got a long-running project in that area. Ballinar Council is aware of the issue. It's become obviously much more prevalent because of this year and the fish kill in March, but it is about sustained pressure.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know what you want to say to that, but yeah, on top of that, you can actually get online, and this is interesting, you can have a look at they've got um gauges on the um the oxygen levels in the water. There is none. So you go up there, and oxygen level, I think, whether it's fish can survive in two or three, I'm not really sure of the science of it, but it's it can't support life. It cannot support life. So the the water that's up there is that rotten, it can't even support any life in there. That'll give you an indication. Now, uh what you can do, okay. I'd say, right, write to Tamara Smith, write to all these guys. Look, at the end of the day, they've someone's got to make a decision to open the gates. That's that's just the end of the line, what it is. And it's just it it's it just does my head in that we've even got see it's government reports. They didn't want that released. And they even say that that's bad. Every single agency and every indigenous, everyone says it's bad, but we still got it. And we're talking seven gates. Seven pins, seven gates. Need to go. It's done that much damage, still there. If you can explain to me how that is, I don't know. I don't know. So write to your members, do whatever you can, stand on your head, sing jingle bells, whatever you need to do, and let people know that that is not on. That is not the river you want. And we do have the worst river on the east coast of Australia, and here we celebrate, and we should be celebrating the destruction of the place. It's shocking.
SPEAKER_03:Thanks, Mark. Round of applause for Mark. Dropping the hard truths.
SPEAKER_01:If you've enjoyed listening to the conversation so far, consider also subscribing to Water People on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. It'll help other people find the show. And if you're feeling inspired, leave us a review. We love hearing from you. And now a word from the folks who help make the podcast possible. Patagonia is in business to save our home planet. Founded by Yvonne Chinard in 1973, Patagonia is a surf and outdoor apparel company based in Ventura, California. As a certified B Corp and a founding member of 1% for the planet, the company is recognized internationally for its product quality and environmental activism, as well as its contributions of nearly$230 million to environmental organizations. Its unique ownership structure reflects that the Earth is its only shareholder. Profits not reinvested back into the business are paid as dividends to protect the planet. Learn more at patagonia.com.au. Many of us look to supplements and special diets to maintain our health, but ignore the obvious. We are water. It's what we're made of, and it's what supports every bodily function. Primal water, the water our ancestors thrived on, is energized, alkaline, and made for real hydration. It doesn't come from the industrialized, often contaminated water systems most of us rely on. For the last 25 years, Alkaway has been researching and refining ways to mimic natural water systems. We invite you to learn more about primal water and support their charitable work with BirdLife Australia. Head to alkaway.com to score a$50 discount using code WaterPeople. That's Alkaway.com. What do you do when your sunglass lenses inevitably get scuffed or scraped? The top drawer of our kitchen island was where scratched sunglasses went to die. Until we learned about the sunglass fix, they've been at the forefront of the repair revolution since 2006 and carry more than 600,000 lens options. So there's a solution for every frame. We found our SENIs on thesunglassfix.com and within a few days received brand new polarized lenses to easily install at home. A billion pairs of sunglasses are made each year, with hundreds of millions ending up in landfill. The Sunglass Fix offers free lens shipping in Australia and to 161 countries around the world, as well as subsidized express tracked shipping worldwide for less than$5 in any currency. They're a proud member of 1% for the planet and are ready to help make your favorite frames last longer. Use the code Waterpeople for 10% off your purchase today at thesunglassfix.com.
SPEAKER_03:My name's Tom Wolfe. I founded an organization called Revive the Northern Rivers with my fiance over there maybe almost five years ago now, and have tried to put this festival together with my fellow MCs, Zoe, Kristen, Emma from Ballinar, Allison. Yeah, that's a heap, but I can't think of them all now. Thanks to them, thanks to everyone and all the stalls that came out today and supported, and it's great to have such a good turnout and such bloody good weather. Yeah, so as I said, I wrote this story at 5.30 this morning. Usually I like winging it, but today I decided I'd actually get prepared. So I went down to the local creek where I live on the plateau up at Alstonville and yeah, wrote this little story. So I hope you enjoy it. Rivers have flowed through me since the beginning. Stories of rivers transferred by my ancestors through blood, connecting my past, present, future. My family arrived at this river seven generations past. I wonder how it flowed through their lives and what they thought about the people who knew it best, the many clans from the Bunjalong and Githabul nations that had lived and loved beside this river since time began here. I wonder if this transmission of water through my own family line, one life after the other, carried memories embedded in it. And that all those water stories were swallowed up in utero and carried with me to this day, as I stand here before you now, beside this very same river, flowing always. My family arrived to meet the River West in a place we now call Tatum. Like most new arrivals on this ancient continent, they came chasing the most valuable commodity of all, timber, and lots of it. It's hard not to think of what could have been had the thirst for timber been not so unquenchable. Felling timber for production had it had its costs, but it was the eventual clearing of vast tracts of primeval gondwanan rainforest across the rich soils of the plateau, all for the sake of more pasture that was the real knife in the back. This river has always been here, but as I grew older our stories converged. My father, a saltwater man himself of the sandstone country down around the Secret River, taught me to sail here. Learning the dance of wind and water captivated me, and the relative calm of the river flowing in, out, in with the tide allowed me to build confidence. On days when the wind didn't blow, we'd hoon around on the old tinny. The 15 horsepower outboard, redlining as we caught air off the unbroken swell lines curving their way into the bar. My memory may come with rose-colored glasses, but in that collection of formative memories, the river rarely ran brown. My mother's life as a young girl was inseparable from the river. From a house in Riverview Avenue, a short float from here, a lasting bond was formed by my other bloodline, the sixth in a line of seven generations to share this water. Countless hours spent diving into salty water of the estuary, cutting feet on the oysters, fishing, playing, laughing, surfing, and swimming. Water stories from the beginning. As I left my teenage years behind, me and the river diverged from each other. I saw it new places and waters while the river remained here flowing, slowly suffering under a weight of history that only seemed to get heavier. Wherever I went, I was never far from water. Its pull always undeniable. I slowly built my understanding of ecology and how ecosystems function, mostly through the art of observation. Curiosity was a great teacher. For a decade I followed water around the world, from Tasmania to Darwin, Patagonia to Alaska. I witnessed rivers who are mostly left to their own devices, and others who are left to absorb the byproducts of modern human existence. Ignorance may be bliss, but it won't save a river from dying a slow death. Then the pandemic. As a virus ravaged parts of the world, I returned home, back again to the river. We all watched as air travel ground to a halt, whole societies turned inwards, and in some places, ecosystems were given enough breathing space from the modern capitalist machine, if only for a little while. With my own space and time, born of redundancies and unemployment, I eventually found myself in the local library chasing cognitive stimulation. The surf was good that year, but I needed something more. I spent hours pouring over local history books and bungee-lung yarns in between surfs. Slowly but surely, I began to build a picture in my mind about what this river once was, of the life systems it was able to support. Not a day goes by that I don't wish I could go back, if only for a few minutes, to see who this river once was, once upon a time. But since we still haven't figured out time travel, I'm left with historical records and the limits of my own imagination. What I learned through those hours reading books was that this river has a virus of its own. A virus so insipid and contagious it destroys much in its spread. Unlike COVID-19, the symptoms aren't sore throat, a fever, or respiratory distress. The capitalist virus has indoctrinated us all into an idea that there can be endless growth on a finite planet. By compromising our immune system, it has somehow convinced us that our life support systems are nothing more than drains and dams to be exploited. Have you ever looked at a river system from the sky? Ever seen the arteries reaching out across landscapes on the driest inhabited continent on Earth? It's hard not to see the similarities to the systems that sustain our own bodies. We are 75% water after all. As doctors and scientists across the planet scrambled to create vaccines to stem the spread, I too searched for my own solutions for an ailing river. But I quickly learned that mistakes made over centuries can't be put right overnight. Good things take time and a lot of patience. Something I struggle with. But a concerted effort and a rethink of our most crucial priorities, anything is possible. Through creating Revive the Northern Rivers almost five years ago, I have shared many stories, made plenty of mistakes, and learnt more than I ever could have imagined about the most important. River in my life. Ultimately, water has been a great connector and it has led me to some great water people. Since I don't get this chance very often, I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge some of them now. To Marcus Ferguson for his infectious curiosity, good humour, and deep knowledge of this place. Anthony Akrett for his quiet patience and determination. Greg Telford for his wisdom and unwavering resilience. I hope you saw Greg this morning speaking. Rob McFarland for one of the most important books I've ever read. My parents for leading me to water, and my fiance for listening to my hair-brained ideas and helping me transform them into something coherent and sensical. Thank you. Last week, Mika Mika Ballant, I don't think I pronounced that wrong, posed me a question for a story that she put together in the lead up to this festival. She asked simply, What is a river to you? My reply was as follows. A river is a living system, an entity unto itself that sees and feels things much like we do as people. To connect with a river over a lifetime is to make a friend, someone you come to understand on a deeper level, and ultimately someone you'll do whatever you can to care for and celebrate. Today is a day for celebration to connect with our river. But tomorrow I ask of you one thing. Take five minutes out of your day and ask yourself the question: what is a river to me? It could be one of the most expansive and important questions you ever ask.
SPEAKER_04:After attending that amazing day where the water was finally clear and the river looked amazing, but really fresh in our minds was the fact that this river had been so brown to the point of being black, smelled so bad, was kind of scary to go near, and certainly you weren't putting your head in that water. We're feeling all that, but also feeling motivated through listening to the speakers. And one of the biggest motivators for me was that question that Tom was asked and then asked of us, where he said, What is a river to you? And I I left Riverfest thinking, Yeah, what is a river to me? What is the Richmond River? What is a local river in my area? What does it mean to me? And I actually set out the next day on our 30-foot Warham double-hulled sailing canoe with a friend from Hawaii, Chris Mioshiro, friend from New Zealand, Milo Inglis, and then other local friends and leaders in community and coastal conservation. And so we set out to answer that question. What is a river to me? So tune in for that episode coming out soon, and thanks for listening.
SPEAKER_01:We'll be continuing today's conversation on Instagram, where we're at Water People Podcast. And you can subscribe to our very infrequent newsletter to get book recommendations, questions we're pondering, behind the scenes glimpses into recording the podcast, and more via our website, Waterpeoplepodcast.com.
