swimmable birrarung
What if the Birrarung Yarra River was thriving and swimmable, from source to sea.
You could dive from the banks of the Birrarung/Yarra River into clean waters during your lunch break. Imagine warm afternoons spent swimming with friends in the shadow of the CBD skyline, and weekends swimming laps of the river.
The Swimmable Birrarung initiative is a transformative and critical infrastructure project for our city. Its vision is to regenerate the Birrarung Yarra River to the extent that it is healthy, thriving and swimmable again, from source to sea.
Arup
Centre for Cities
City of Melbourne
Earthwatch
Greater Western Water
Hatch
i2C
RMIT
DEECA
Melbourne Water
Taboo group
Hello Atoll
Tract
Yarra swims
Yarra River Keeper Assocation
Yarra Valley Water
Regeneration Projects
Climate Kic
Arup Centre for Cities City of Melbourne Earthwatch Greater Western Water Hatch i2C RMIT DEECA Melbourne Water Taboo group Hello Atoll Tract Yarra swims Yarra River Keeper Assocation Yarra Valley Water Regeneration Projects Climate Kic
Why it’s important
Making the Birrarung swimmable again is about so much more than just swimming. More than 70% of our drinking water comes from this river catchment. As the Woi-wurrung language name for the Yarra Strategic Plan says, Burndap Birrarung burndap umarkoo: “good for Yarra is good for all”. We need to reorient our city to recognise our main waterway as a living entity, as a place inextricably linked to our health and biodiversity.
Melbourne is already straining from the environmental and social challenges brought about by the climate crisis. A course correction is required to build resilience and reconnect people with the natural world.
Making a river Swimmable is no small task (just ask Paris). And the Birrarung in particular is wrapped up in a complicated tangle of local laws, corporate and government bureaucracy, and a lack of public awareness and engagement.
The goal of a Swimmable Birrraung isn’t just to have a single spot in the CBD where swimming is safe – it’s to build an interconnected corridor of swimming places for Melbournians to enjoy, and to embed inner-city swimming into the fabric of the city. To return the river as closely to its pre-colonial health as possible, clear of pollution and thriving with animal life.
how it works
There is amazing activity happening all across the banks of the Birrarung. There always has been, stewarded by the custodianship of the first peoples.
And, at times of transition there needs to be scaffolding and coordination to create centres of gravity that tilts this regenerative-centred activity from outlier into the mainstream. This is what we do, act as connective tissue between an existing and emerging system
Backstage of this looks like an ‘architecture’ that holds lots of relationships, system insights, directs transition pathways and creates coherence (not consensus) for what we do.
Front stage in Melbourne this looks like a set of on the ground projects, happening in collaboration with partners all across the city. When added up, these are designed to be the building blocks to shift the energy, and purpose, of a system towards one that serves everyone, not just a few.
resources, updates and notes from the field
Featured Projects
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Wellbeing Capital: hyper local, distributed grant-making
A participatory grantmaking tool that allows funders to allocate capital to aligned community groups, who decide how to use it through decentralised, mutually agreed upon outcomes. RM is leading the testing and expansion of the tool across community groups in Greater Melbourne.
Partners: The Wellbeing Protocol, Village Zero, Bendigo Bank, Menzies Foundation
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Climate change exchange: Building capacity for climate change adaptation
The Climate Change Exchange brings together experts and ideas to help communities respond to the increasing threats of climate change in socially just and effective ways. RM is the lead in driving the re-establishment of a much needed partnership and network.
Partners: La Trobe University, RMIT, Federation of Community Legal Centres
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Climate change exchange: Building capacity for climate change adaptation
The Climate Change Exchange brings together experts and ideas to help communities respond to the increasing threats of climate change in socially just and effective ways. RM is the lead in driving the re-establishment of a much needed partnership and network.
Partners: La Trobe University, RMIT, Federation of Community Legal Centres
find out more
Nina Sharpe
Lead Convenor (300,000 Streets)
nina@regen.melbourne
Read the 2024 sensemaking report, which sets the scene for the development of 300,000 Streets
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