Imagining Birrarung in 10 years – Chris Chesterfield
Birrarung, I hear you singing! Do you see how things have changed? People are recognising and respecting what you give them. There is still concrete and cars and those who rush by without a thought.
There are still those who take your waters without a thought or care for this gift of life that is taken from the fish and platypus and other creatures who once took life from these flows.
I can hear the language of Traditional Custodians more often and there is more joy and laughter in gatherings along your banks. Your waters have become cleaner, trees are returning along with many birds.
Perhaps you are singing because you can hear voices speaking with gratitude and reverence for the layers of history and culture present in your lands and waters.
The time of extracting, restricting, controlling and using is changing and impacts are slowly being reversed. We are connecting your floodplains and restoring your billabongs and more life is returning to water, land and sky.
Birrarung is singing now that the greatest loss, and the thing that we can all can give back—respect and dignity for the River as a living entity—has returned.
Page last updated: 20/11/25