Seen from the air, Channel Country resembles a vibrant and vast tapestry, with a network of waterways crisscrossing the land. Spread across more than 280,000 square kilometres in outback Australia, it is one of the world’s last free-flowing desert river systems.
In the heart of Channel Country, in southwest Queensland, live the Mithaka people whose ancestors over at least the past 3,000 years played a key role in the development of a transcontinental trade and exchange system. Plants were a central part of the economy of Mithaka people, with at least 200 different species used for food, medicine, materials and ceremonial purposes.
