This week in our summer series we are replaying our tour of the Coorong in SA. In July last year, Water Watch had the privilege of touring the Southern Lagoon with ecologist Faith Coleman, a dedicated local resident who was featured in our special coverage of the fish kills. Faith’s passion for restoring the Coorong is palpable; she has spent years archiving and studying the Southern Lagoon’s history.

As we strolled along the sandy and sometimes muddy shores of Salt Creek and the South Lagoon, Faith shared fascinating insights about how the history of this place guides our current efforts to better manage wetlands. Her deep knowledge and enthusiasm revealed how understanding the past can help shape a more sustainable future for these vital ecosystems.

This episode was first broadcast on August 8, and so please be aware things may have changed since it was published.

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This week we’re excited to share a special interview we published last year. For our Summer Series this week we'll be hearing from one of the country’s most renowned First Nations artists and water activists.

Born on the banks of the Baaka river in 1947, Uncle Badger Bates is a proud Barkindji man and an inspiration to both artists and water activists alike. He’s been a strong voice for Barkindji people, fighting for their land and water rights, and he’s also had a very successful career as an artist, using art to tell stories of the Baaka River and the decimation of this sacred place. In recognition of these achievements, Uncle Badger was awarded the prestigious Red Ochre Award for Lifetime Achievement at the 2024 First Nations Arts and Culture Awards.

The Red Ochre Award was established by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board in 1993 to pay tribute to senior Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons for their outstanding lifetime achievement.

Badger Bates is predominantly a carver, turning his hand to wood, emu eggs, stone carving and linoprinting, but has also made sculptures out of welded steel and although he doesn’t see himself as a painter, he has completed some wonderful paintings.

This program was first published on the 28th of November so please be aware that things may have changed since it was first broadcast. We'll be back with original programming on March 6th.

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This week in our Summer Series we are playing Part 2 from our Wilcannia Weir story which covers a little-known story of bureaucratic failure and government shenanigans in the small town of Wilcannia on the Darling-Baaka River where a weir project has been on the cards for over 40 years. This series was short-listed for a Walkley award last year in the category of long-form audio journalism, and although we didn’t win the award its fantastic to have community radio journalism represented in Australia’s most prestigious journalism awards. Since the publication of this series the weir project has been suspended by the NSW government while an independent investigation into the project is completed. We will almost certainly be covering the results of this investigation later in the year, so this is your chance to catch up on the story so far. This episode was published on April 6th last year and things may have changed.

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