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Since forming in 2020, Regen Melbourne and a committed group of researchers, environmental advocates, Indigenous leaders, engineers, entrepreneurs and environmentalists have been hatching a plan to make Melbourne's Birrarung (Yarra) River swimmable. Now they're ready to put all that research into action.
"Imagine rushing out of your office at lunchtime on a hot day and cooling off in a beautiful waterway that runs through the very heart of Melbourne," says Charity Mosienyane. "Now imagine being part of the movement that actually made it possible to swim in this river, play in this river, enjoy this river."
With a background in civil and environmental engineering, Charity has spent the majority of the last 17 years working in engineering roles in the water sector in Australia, the UK and elsewhere. Now, she's the Lead Convenor of Regen Melbourne's Swimmable Birrarung project, a "wild and ambitious" bid to get the river, Melbourne's life force, swimmable again.
If you've clapped eyes on the particularly grim limb of the Birrarung that flows through Melbourne's CBD at any point in the last 200 years or so, you may have your doubts. Since colonisation, the lower part of the river has become a murky dumping ground for E. Coli, trash, pollution and sewerage.
Of course, the river has been swimmable before. And for the Wurundjeri, Woi Wurrung and Boon Wurrung People it has been a source of sustenance, joy, wisdom and wonder for tens of thousands of years.
Getting us back to a swimmable Birrarung is no simple task. Not only does it involve cleaning up the river, it also involves overcoming myriad government and policy barriers, significant legal hurdles, organising with a city's worth of stakeholders and drumming up support from business and industry.
Luckily, the team at Regen Melbourne – which comprises eight actual staff and around 180 supporting organisations – has a bit of a knack for solving complex problems.
"When you hear that sections of the Thames are swimmable, that's what gives me the biggest hope. People swim there all the time, and the river goes through the heart of THE city."
"Regen Melbourne is about tangible transformation, not speculative futures," says CEO Kaj Lofgren. "We're unbelievably ambitious and I don't shy away from that. But we're also visionary and specific. You can't get more specific than making the river swimmable."
Regen Melbourne's broader mission is to regenerate Melbourne and bring it within the bounds of Kate Raworth's Doughnut Economics framework. The Swimmable Birrarung is one keystone project, with others including ending food waste and regenerating neighbourhoods via the Regen Streets initiative.
For Kaj, the Swimmable Birrarung is the perfect vehicle through which we can begin to solve some of the systemic issues facing us. "Our modern economic system has led to the separation of urban life from the natural ecosystem," he says. "In Melbourne, that's represented most potently by the fact that the life force of our city, the Birrarung, is not healthy."
The goal 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. Elsewhere, Copenhagen's Harbour Baths, Oslo's inner-city fjord and even the River Thames offer viable models for inner-city swimming.
The Regen Melbourne team is quick to point out that they didn't 'invent' this work. First Nations peoples, local and state agencies, water corporations, community groups, advocacy groups (such as the Yarra Riverkeeper Association) and more have been working on regenerating the river for decades. The Yarra Strategic Plan provides a strategic direction for a healthy, thriving river. But where Regen plays is as a convener and catalyst. "This is a collective undertaking," explains Charity. "Every single actor within the ecosystem needs to play a role."
"You can't fight climate change with fear and survival as the only goal. You have to fight it with joy and hope. I think a Swimmable Birrarung is the ultimate beacon of what's possible when you organise with joy and hope."
The capital-M Magic of the project is its ability to get us to care about regeneration, biodiversity and healing the environment. "In the light of rolling crises and the potential for apathy and withdrawal, we need initiatives that extend us and connect us with joy," says Kaj.
Over the next year, Regen Melbourne will work with their collaborators to identify, co-develop and implement a portfolio of leverage points along the river. An example could be amplifying Melbourne's love of the Birrarung through celebration and storytelling, like the existing Birrarung Riverfest which the Yarra Riverkeeper Association held last year for the very first time.
"The Swimmable Birrarung project might seem trivial to people in light of the crises we face," Kaj explains, "but I think it's pivotal. It's absolutely pivotal that we give ourselves a chance to connect with the joy and the hope, and not just the existential dread."
