Who gets a say on what happens on the river?

The government? The council? The landowners? The land's custodians? You and me?

In this episode, we're revisiting a story that we covered a couple of months ago, the redevelopment proposal to turn the Kogarah Golf Course into a logistics hub and possible data centre.

Since that episode a broad protest movement has emerged, coalescing around the group called SCRAP (Stop The Cooks River AI Project). Meanwhile, councillors on Bayside Council are railing against their lack of input in this "State Significant Development" and calling for major changes to the proposal.

This proposal has become a major flashpoint of community unrest. Questions are being asked about what input, if any, the community will have into what the development will look like. Many are asking for better consultation, some are advocating that the whole site be turned over to the public, or to nature, or to Aboriginal custodianship.

We're still awaiting a response to submissions from the developers, and we're a way off a decision by the Independent Planning Commission. Bayside Council is trying to discuss a land swap, to get the public park actually facing the river, but so far they're coming up short. Community groups have had meetings lined up, dates, times and venues agreed, and then they're cancelled.

In this episode, we're heading along to one of the SCRAP protests to chat with organisers and hear the speeches. We've also got interviews with local Bayside councillors who have strong opinions about what should happen here, despite being locked out of the planning process.

We've also got a reading of a beautiful and hilarious love-letter to the river, 'Cooks River I Want To Swim In You', by Izzi Boustead.

And we have all of your River News for October 2026.

Featuring: Aunty Rhonda Dixon-Grovenor, Jordan Ryan-Hennessey, Dr Padraic (Paddy) Gibson, Caitlin Boyce, Gabby, Clr Olivia Barlow, Clr Izabella Antoniou, Yomna Touni, Clr Peter Strong, Clr Soraya Kassim and Izzi Boustead.

Host/producer: Niall Edwards-FitzSimons

Music by: riverkid

Thanks also to Jason L'Ecuyer, Glen from the River Canoe Club, and Zoe Ferguson.

You can read the statements we received here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1mnqGH2lhKJwRczzPUBSzhLISrrj5F0wi?usp=sharing

This episode was produced on the lands of the Gadigal and the Bidjigal and we pay respect to elders past and present.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nature really is unquashable.

Nature always finds a way to come back, to poke through the cracks, to stick around on the margins and await the day that better conditions arrive. No matter how we try to control, shape or suppress it, nature is there, waiting to make itself known to us.

First up in this episode we're talking about the Gumbramorra Swamp, the vast wetland that used to cover most of Marrickville and still lurks underground, waiting to rise up and flood the suburb during big rains. We're joined by Sue Castrique, who's just published Gumbramorra: Water, Place and People, and Uncle Terry Lennis, a local Dharug and Dharawal elder, who consulted for Inner West Council on the recently unveiled restored wetland at Mackey Park.

And in the second half we're going along to the Goolay'yari Cooks River Bioblitz, part of a global event called the Home River Bioblitz, where participants act as citizen scientists for the day, logging their sightings of bugs, lizards, birds and whatever else on the iNaturalist app. At this community event bringing together science, art, food and fun, we speak to organisers and participants and go chasing the Pink-Fingered Marsh Crab.

Together these stories demonstrate that these natural processes and ecosystems are still there, surviving and sometimes thriving even after two-plus centuries of colonisation, concreting and environmental crisis.

And of course we have all your River News for September 2026.

Guests: Sue Castrique, Uncle Terry Lennis, Milly Caley, Zuhairah Dindar, Erin Machin-Hall (TrashFish)

Host/producer: Niall Edwards-FitzSimons

Music by: riverkid

Thanks to all of our guests, to everyone we spoke to at the Bioblitz including Katie, Roie, Kelly, Theo, Daisy and Sally, and also to Zoe Ferguson.

This episode was produced on the lands of the Gadigal and the Bidjigal and we pay respect to elders past and present.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This month we’re spending time in the part of our river catchment with the worst reputation of all. The most unloved part of a river system that was unloved for so long. The most unnatural, the most toxic. The worst of the worst.

I’m talking about Shea’s Creek, but you might know it better as the Alexandr(i)a Canal.

In this episode you’ll hear from historian Ron Ringer about the history of this waterway, and how it came to be the way it is. We’re also delving into a recent controversy; we’re following up on the significant oil spill here recently and asking questions of the authorities about their response and their efforts to hold the perpetrators to account.

While this incident shows how this waterway continues to be neglected and abused, the waterway itself is resilient and despite being a so-called man-made landscape, it supports an ecosystem and contributes to the local area.

It’s this resilience and the way the natural qualities of water interact with and sometimes overrun the man-made features of the landscape that have also inspired artists, like Ashley Frost, to engage with these places, and to teach us something about them.

Later in the episode, you’ll also hear how the swamp’s persistence inspires local rapper BAYANG (tha Bushranger), and we’ll chat about his new song Sydney Swamp (Pemulwuy Paddles Along Gulay’yari).

And finally we share points of interest and controversy from the Cooks River Valley Association’s Annual Report and AGM, including a chat with new millennial committee member Maja Sorensen.

And of course we have all your River News for August 2026.

Guests: Ron Ringer, Ashley Frost, BAYANG (tha Bushranger) and Maja Sorensen.

Host/producer: Niall Edwards-FitzSimons

Music by: riverkid

Thanks to all of our guests, and also to Jason L’Ecuyer and Zoe Ferguson.

All of the statements we received are here in full: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1fLSKI68FIHZahWvnv6M36HU6G6eyf2Zg?usp=drive_link

This episode was produced on the lands of the Gadigal and the Bidjigal and we pay respect to elders past and present.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.