ICYMI: the Swimmable Birrarung project recently found itself in the throes of a media frenzy. From breakfast television to the pages of national mastheads, the project was thrust into the spotlight with all the excitement, speculation and skepticism that comes with it. So how did we get here, and what does it all mean? 

In the first week of April we witnessed quite the media groundswell, with the “brave” vision of the Swimmable Birrarung project beamed into millions of living rooms, coffee shops and smartphones across the country.

The Herald Sun called the project a “bold strategy” while Kaj chatted with Sunrise’s Matt ‘Shirvo’ Shirvington about the finer points of movement-building in service of a swimmable river. The Swimmable Birrarung also ended up on 7News, The Today Show, TimeOut, 3AW Drive and ABC Melbourne Drive radio shows and across all manner of social media channels. Fellow campaigner, Regeneration Projects’ Matt Sykes was also featured on ABC radio discussing the move to make the river swimmable. Through all of this coverage, the Swimmable Birrarung had the potential to reach somewhere in the region of 18 million Australians.

The whole experience was exciting, a little scary, a smidge overwhelming and ultimately rewarding – as we witnessed first-hand just how deeply the vision of a Swimmable Birrarung resonates with our city. Now this wave of publicity has subsided, we’re moving into figuring out how it all happened in the first place, and what it means for us moving forward.

On the surface, the ‘how it happened’ question is pretty straightforward: we pitched the Swimmable Birrarung story to the Herald Sun, who ran it in print and online on Wednesday March 27. The story then swiftly took on a life of its own.

Dive a little deeper and the ‘how it happened’ story is of course much more complex.

This recent PR bonanza was made possible by decades of work by countless actors up and down the river and is the direct result of a cumulative, community effort. It happened because of the work the Yarra Riverkeeper Association has been doing since 2004 in their constant agitation of the policy environment and need to protect the waterway. It happened because of the work Yarra Pools has been doing since 2014 in imagining what a swimming activation could actually look like. It happened because the Victorian State Government passed the Wilip-gin Birrarung murrun act in 2017 to legally grant Living Entity Status to the Birrarung, and it happened because of the engagement, design and governance work as part of the Burndap Birrarung burndap / umarkoo Yarra Strategic Plan in 2020. It happened because of Regeneration Projects’ vision for a Great Victorian Bathing Trail and swimmable corridor, and because of the tireless efforts and wisdom sharing through regenerative practitioners such as Dr. Loretta Bellato.

“[This] happened because for over 20 years, a community has been convening around the goal of regenerating this river so it’s healthy, protected and thriving.”

It happened because for over 20 years, a community has been convening around the goal of regenerating this river so it’s healthy, protected and thriving. And, for one reason or another – but possibly one that has to do with all the existential climate dread we’re collectively feeling – people now seem ready to hear that story. People are primed for the joy and the hope.

Of course the Swimmable Birrarung has been in the news before – from Yarra Pools to the wonderful (and committed!) Yarra Yabbies, there’s a river’s worth of folks who have been pushing this message forwards for years. And this recent groundswell was made possible because of all the stories that came before.

The experience was also an exercise in understanding how the media works – and what they do to get clicks. While Sunrise and The Herald Sun’s stories and segments were reasonably level-headed, fair and representative of the project, some of the social media content was tailored for polarisation. One of The Herald Sun’s Instagram posts, for example, led with the headline: ‘Obvious and fun: Why we should be swimming in the Yarra’, as if the idea is to encourage people to go for a swim right now (a second post was more nuanced). While the caption copy provided the relevant context, it was a good reminder that the media can – and will! – spin the narratives to suit themselves. It comes with the territory.

With regards to what this hoopla means for the work, it depends a little on your perspective.

One thing this publicity does help us with is social license on a number of levels. For a start, getting Melburnians excited about a potential swimmable future will go a long way to helping drum up interest and attendance for future events and activations along the river – such as the Yarra Riverkeeper’s Birrarung Riverfest later this year. We’ve always known that in order to make the Birrarung swimmable again, we’ll need a city-wide movement, and this brings us one step closer – or perhaps half a step – to making that happen.

This level of coverage can also work as an attractor for organisations up and down the river – whether they’re looking for staff, volunteers, funding or assistance of any form, this publicity is a strong signal to potential allies that enough people believe in this work to make it a reality. (Appearing on Sunrise also has the added benefit of making it a heck of a lot easier for us to explain to our parents what it is, exactly, that we do for work).

Moving forward, we’ll be nurturing the relationships we’re developing with journalists and aligned media to help us harness them on behalf of collaborators and alliance partners for future events, activations and news-worthy moments up and down the river. The recent interest in the Swimmable Birrarung clearly demonstrates just how much power and potential this vision has, and we’re keen to help support our collaborators and alliance members in getting their own stories out into the world.

We’re also keen to get Kaj in a sauna with Shirvo, so watch out for that.

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