On the 11th of August 2024, almost the entire Australian River Restoration Centre team (10 of the 12) piled into planes, buses, and cars from three states and one territory to flock (quite like waterbirds, really) to the 11th Australian Stream Management Conference in Victor Harbor, South Australia. The conference was terrific, and there’s lots to report!

The usually biennial Australian Stream Management (ASM) conference has been a pillar of the waterway management sector since its inception in 1996. The last face-to-face ASM was six years ago due to COVID-19, so it was wonderful that our stream management community could come together with optimism and enthusiasm that we haven’t seen in a long time.

The theme was fully realised by the diverse audience of practitioners, managers, researchers, communicators, conservationists, and multidisciplinary experts from different fields. Friendly, engaging and productive conversations occurred everywhere, with new ideas and projects being conceptualised left and right. The energy from this gathering of people was palpable, and the ARRC team were grateful to be exposed to so many wonderful people and powerful ideas.

The 11ASM kicked-off with a grounding and reflective Welcome to Country by Ngarrindjeri and Narangga man and contemporary artist Cedric Varcoe, acknowledging that the conference was being held on Ngarrindjeri Country, a place that has seen generations of different groups coming together to meet, trade, share knowledge and connect to country. Rene Woods followed this with a powerful plenary on incorporating First Nations knowledge in Basin planning, noting that trust, transparency and communication were fundamental in prioritising First Nations knowledge and engagement in all our future work.

The reflections session, facilitated by our CEO Dr Siwan Lovett, was a real highlight, encouraging attendees to mix amongst themselves and interweave their knowledge in a way that produced collective stories from the group. Working together, conference attendees wrote 200 stories in just 20 minutes – we have provided a few here for you to enjoy with each sentence in the story contributed by a different person. With such a great start, the conference continued to provide exemplary presentations covering topics from mangrove restoration all the way to artificial intelligence.

Something new this year was the combination of the River Basin Management Society (RBMS) Awards Gala with the rest of the ASM conference program. The ARRC was proud to sponsor the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge and practice in waterway management award, which was presented by Dr Siwan Lovett to the Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation for the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape Management Program.

The ARRC team was also proud to receive two RBMS awards of our own:

• Our Forgotten River campaign received the Runner Up award in the Involving Community in Waterway Management category, with first place going to Flows for the Future. Congratulations to all the nominees!
• Andy Lowes received an honourable mention for best presentation of the entire conference, which featured in its entirety nearly one hundred presentations! Andy’s presentation on the Upper Murrumbidgee River and the Forgotten River campaign was powerful and moving – check out the paper below, and congratulations Andy!

Some of the stories from the session

We’d like to make a noteworthy mention of Dr. Sue Pillans who used graphic recording to interweave all the knowledge threads from the conference into one beautiful visual story (see the masterpiece below), which attendees could reflect on throughout the conference. Dr. Pillans also gave an inspiring presentation during the Gala Dinner, emphasising the astounding collection of knowledge in the room and summarising some of the paths forward revealed during the conference proceedings. “It was such a joy to draw attention to this Conference and interweave the knowledge, practices and experiences being used across Australia to help manage our precious waterways,” Dr. Pillans said. You can learn more about Sue’s visual storytelling here.

Dr Sue Pillans’ final graphic recording artwork at the conclusion of the 11ASM Conference. Artwork © Dr Sue Pillans. https://drsuepillans.com/

The ARRC had the privilege of delivering four conference papers, as well as accompanying in-person presentations, at the conference. Read our papers and access the rest of the conference proceedings via the links below.

We were proud to exhibit a table with some of our best resources, including our Stock and Waterways Guide, the Fishes of the Murray-Darling Basin book by Mark Lintermans, and a selection of our river-restoring merch, including mugs, cards, lures, apparel, and more.

We also had the privilege of being able to raffle a stunning print of Weaving (Lakun) by local Ngarrindjeri/Kaurna artist Kath Moore. We chose this painting as an embodiment of the 11ASM theme ‘interweaving water knowledge’ – together, we will braid Australia’s numerous threads of waterway knowledge to revive our river basins for a brighter future.

The conference also featured two field trips: The Compass Always Points North and the Magical Murray Mouth. The first group visited Mount Compass to see work being done by the Nature Glenelg Trust to bring back some local wines! The second field trip group journeyed to Goolwa Barrage to check out a fishway, the Beyond Today sustainable development to see some conservation efforts in action, and finally a viewing point of the magnificent Murray Mouth with a brief talk from Nick Whiterod from the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth Research Centre.

All in all, it was an incredibly inspiring few days surrounded by some truly incredible work and people. We look forward to the next ASM conference and hope to see you there! 🙌

We’ll leave you with a few highlights and quotes our team gave in their talks and collected by the ever-observant Alex James.

‘As rivers weave their paths through the land, so must we weave together varied strands of knowledge to restore and protect them now and into the future.’ – Dr Siwan Lovett

‘Just as natural capital is a resource, so is social capital. Making good use of social capital through effective, targeted communication will help us enhance and protect our natural capital and progress on-ground outcomes’. – Chris Walsh

Andy Lowes spoke with passion about the Forgotten River, highlighting the plight of the Upper Murrumbidgee. In classic fashion, he made the very best use of his time – “Four minutes to go on my talk, looks like it might be a photo finish” – Andy Lowes

‘Artificial Intelligence tools enables us to synthesise a lot of information, so that we can focus on the critical thinking and creative aspects of our work.’ – Pat Gudhka

‘The Five P’s methodology developed by Siwan helped provide structure and a way of thinking about our Rivers of Carbon projects.’ – Alex James and Jed Pearson

The ARRC Team at 11ASM 2024, in front of Dr Sue Pillans’ graphic recording artwork.