As befitting a riverkeeper, Charlotte Sterrett lives just three doors down from the waters she watches over.
On a warm, clear day, there's a swimming hole in the Yarra (Birrarung) river she likes to go to with her daughter, partner, and dog. The bank there isn't too steep, and the current is gentle. The air is filled with the sounds of birds and the wind in the trees.
"The water looks brown because of the suspended particles, which are very fine and come from the clay that's in the earth around us," Sterrett told ABC RN's Blueprint for Living.
While that colour has led people to dub it the "upside-down" river, "it doesn't necessarily mean that it's unclean. It's just a very Australian River."
The river is deeply tied up with Sterrett's sense of identity and belonging to Melbourne.
The Yarra Riverkeeper Association is an independent, community-led organisation of advocates, and she became their riverkeeper in January. Sterrett is the third person and the first woman in the role. She is very aware of how much she must learn – and what hangs in the balance.
A voice for the river
"I've lived by the river for 15 years in North Warrandyte," she says. "And I knew about the Yarra Riverkeeper Association because the first-ever riverkeeper Ian Penrose lived on my street."
Sterrett says there are some 11 waterkeepers in Australia, but about 350+ worldwide who belong to the Waterkeeper Alliance.
For her, it's a "dream job". It means she is now an independent voice for the Yarra, speaking for its protection from source to sea.
From its origin on Mount Baw Baw in the Yarra Ranges National Park, the river flows some 242 kilometres all the way down to Port Phillip Bay. The river mouth was once a rich river delta with connected wetlands stretching from where the Melbourne CBD is now to Port Phillip Bay. Today, it is an estuary where salt water from the bay travels nearly 10km upstream.
What many don't realise, says Sterrett, is that the river is the source of 70 per cent of Melbourne's drinking water. The river's catchment area spans some 4,000 square kilometres – but with more than one-third of Victoria's population living on it, the river is under mounting pressure.
Waters under threat
Every day, Sterrett goes into the community to talk to people about the river and the challenges it faces.
The waters of the Yarra, its tributaries and creeks support agriculture, industry and tourism, while providing water for household use. Sterrett believes those functions are too often prioritised at the expense of the river itself.
Dams and reservoirs — including the Upper Yarra reservoir, completed in 1957 — have impeded the flow of the river. "Part of that was to stop flooding and also secure the water supply," says Sterrett. "The river lost around half of its flow back then."
Then there's the question of pollution. Sterrett avoids going swimming in the days after a storm when runoff can contaminate the river with rubbish, fertiliser, and chemical runoff.
Simultaneously, the green banks of the Yarra are under threat. In the upper reaches of the river, indigenous vegetation has been cleared away to make room for agriculture and golf courses, while in the lower Yarra, large apartment buildings are among developments causing concern.
Sterrett visits the occupants of these apartments to talk about what they can do as friends of the Yarra. This could include restoring or regenerating the sections of the bank that are closest to them.
"So, instead of just looking at the river and using it as an amenity, our aim is for them to know the river better, so they become advocates themselves, their own riverkeepers."
But these aren't the most significant challenges facing the river.
Melbourne's population is set to explore; simultaneously, climate models project a drier climate future for Victoria particularly under a high-emissions scenario.
"So, we've got a crisis on our hands: we've got double the population, potentially, half the amount of water … it's not really going to be sustainable."
Sterrett feels a sense of urgency, a small window in which to make big changes. And key to that is recognising these challenges – and the solutions – are interconnected.
Learning from the traditional owners
While most of the waterways and land of the Birrarung is on Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country, the mouth of the river sits in Bunurong Country. There are many cultural sites along the river including the Yarra Flats dreaming, the Heide Scar tree and the Bolin Bolin Billabong in Bulleen.
"The Birrarung has been central to our cultural, spiritual, social and economic wellbeing since the Dreaming," Aunty Alice Kolasa, an Elder of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation, told the Victorian Parliament prior to the reading of The Yarra River Protection (Wilip-gin Birrarung murron) Act 2017.
"Our Ancestors and the Birrarung shaped one another — living in balance together for countless generations."
The Act – the first legislation in Australia to be co-titled in a Traditional Owner language – brings the river and certain stretches of the public land it flows through under one umbrella.
It sets out to "wilip-gin Birrarung murron" (keep the Birrarung alive) and underpins the ambitious Yarra Strategic Plan of 2022, which offers a 50-year community vision and outlines key objectives for the next 10 years.
Sterrett believes that if these plans are to succeed, we must first change the way we perceive the river itself.
Today, there are 16 councils that the river runs through, but the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung have long seen the river as "one living and integrated natural entity".
"It's not just about individuals doing the right thing, it's about communities, local, state and federal government, along with the international community, doing all the right things and working together," Sterrett says.
"More than that, it's about seeing ourselves as not separate from nature, that we're part of this big picture.
"For too long we've seen ourselves as free to dominate nature, to use and exploit as we want and we're coming to the end of that – if we don't change that there will be an end for humankind as we know it."
Along the riverbanks
Vitally, this means going beyond the river to its banks. For Sterrett life along the Yarra means being on intimate terms with the creatures that call it home.
The banks are thick with life: the microbats that use the river corridor by night and the thousands of grey-headed flying foxes that dispense seeds and pollinate plants; bluetongue lizards and dwarf tree frogs; small, brightly coloured eastern rosella nesting in tree hollows and koalas feasting on the eucalypts along the river's upper reaches.
Among an estimated 22 species of fish, the nationally vulnerable Australian grayling, the Yarra pygmy perch, and the river blackfish are found in the river.
And then there is the miraculous short-finned eel, which can travel up to 5,000 kilometres to breed – from the river to the Coral Sea – a journey that can take over a year.
Sterrett says seeing elusive platypus in the river is a good indicator of its health, but her favourite is the wombat – she's ensured the "bulldozers of the bush" have free passage through her backyard via above-ground tunnels made of stormwater pipes.
She loves watching the birds and when her daughter was young, the call of the laughing kookaburra was a sign that it was time for the child to go to bed.
When the riverkeeper paddles her canoe down the water, she points to the river red gums that form a tree canopy and native grasses that provide food for grazing kangaroos. Some rare and endangered plant species grow here, including endangered species of eucalypt like the Yarra gum.
It's not just animals that need the vegetation to thrive, explains Sterrett – humans do too. The roots of plants and trees can help filter stormwater and prevent erosion along the banks.
She is also looking forward to the Greenline project, which will create a four-kilometre stretch of parkland between the Birrarung Marr and Bolte Bridge on the Yarra's north bank.
"They're going to be introducing floating wetlands along the river to increase habitat for fish, for birds and other animals. So, hopefully we'll hear different noises in the city."
Communion with nature
When she's most worried, Sterrett finds herself turning to the river as if it were an "old friend".
This quality of hopefulness might even be essential to succeeding as a riverkeeper.
"You have to be realistic about the challenges and say: 'This is the vision I have for the future of the river, the people who live by it and the animals and plants,' and then you can work towards that vision. That's important – without hope, you would just give up."
Sterrett has been inspired by how many people have turned toward the natural world for comfort amid the stress of COVID-19.
"By 2030, it would be fantastic for everyone to be able to swim in the river, no matter where they live, [even] down to the sea."
She herself hopes one day to paddle the whole length of the Yarra – all the way to Port Melbourne, swimming in its restorative water.
"If the Yarra Strategic Plan achieves all it sets out to achieve, we'll be able to do that. And that will be fantastic."
