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Back in March, Dr Katie Ross and I ran a canoe journey along the Murray/Dungala River, Australia’s longest, most regulated and mythologised river - to, as the bill put it, listen, witness, and create, in deep immersion and deep time. Could that help change the story of a magnificent but sorely ailing River and its communities? By changing our stories? By asking the River even? 

We headed to the confluence of the Murray Darling/Dungala Baaka Rivers, and called the journey Confluence. It filled in days. And come the Equinox, 16 of us climbed aboard and disembarked for a week together.

We’ve had many folk asking about it since. Including many who wanted to be there but couldn’t. So with thanks to you all for your interest, we decided to record our initial debrief for you. There’ll be more to share over time. But if you’re interested in how Confluence came about, was set up, and turned out in its first running, then here’s a starter. 

We also debrief on Katie’s broader tour of Australia, delivering related keynotes. And our chat culminates with some of the most extraordinary aspects of the river journey. 

This was recorded a little after Confluence, by the Yarra/Birrarung River in Melbourne/Naarm - the first to be recognised as a living entity in Australian law. Though you might be surprised to learn that recognition doesn’t include the water.

So we start with this monumental story of the river we sit by, and the broader movements it’s part of, then trace our path back to Confluence. 

Chapter markers & transcript.

Recorded 17 April 2026.

Title image: Katie with Cynthia Mitchell up front (pic: Anthony James).

See more photos in this article & participant Sally Gillespie’s. 

Ep 218 - Katie at Aldo Leopold’s shack

Ep 97 - Alessandro Pelizzon

Ep 37 - Nora Bateson

Ep 195 – Dominique Hes

Ep 211 - Jeff Goebel

Music:

River, by Onyx Music (from Artlist).

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.

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