Water Watch Radio

It’s been a wonderful journey for Dan and Megan over the past 3 years and 100 programs. We’ve loved every minute, but today we have some sad news.  This is going to be our last program of Water Watch in its current weekly format. To bid us goodbye, we want to invite you on one last special, taking you through our favourite moments where our little program opened us up to new ways...

Imagine buying 11 acres in the countyside only to find out 9 months in that a new mine is proposed just down the road. Thats's the story of Dan Sutton from the Belubula Headwaters Protection Group who you'll hear from this week.     Support the show: https://www.2dryfm.com/donate/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

South Australia's coast has been inundated with a toxic algae bloom, killing aquatic wildlife, closing down industry and leading to calls for a national disaster status.  In the past four months a toxic marine algae bloom has spread north through Gulf St Vincent, across Kangaroo Island, into Spencer Gulf and around Port Lincoln—and is now edging towards Adelaide’s metro beaches. L...

For NAIDOC week we have a very special interview with Barkindji Malyangapa rapper who takes her name from the river, BARKAA! Barkaa recently released a powerful new collaboration with Barkindji Malyangapa muscian from Wilcannia Leroy Johnson. Their song Ngamaka is an ode, to mother earth, river and Country and a call to action to address the ongoing destruction of this beautiful river.  ...

This week we’re excited to share a special interview we’ve been working on for a while with one of the country’s renowned 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 an...

This week on water watch we speak with Zena Cumpston, artist and co-curator of the contemporary art exhibition Ngaratya (together, us group, all in it together). The exhibition brings together six Barkandji/Barkindji artists including Nici Cumpston, Zena Cumpston, David Doyle, Kent Morris, Adrianne Semmens and Raymond Zada. with works inspired by Barkandji/Barkindji Country, as a Mother and active...

Today you’re going to hear from a well read, and well written academic on water issues. Professor Quentin Grafton recently published a book, and the launch of the book was accompanied with an address to the National Press Club and an article in the Conversation. The description of the book proclaims:    It’s high time to call out the mistruths and post truths and retell...

Today on Water Watch we are revisiting the Menindee fishway trial to listen to the full interview with Anthony Townsend from NSW DPIRD Fisheries. What does it feel to be a fish slurped up a tube? Tune in, and you might just find out.  Watch Watch is produced by Broken Hill Community radio 2DRY.  Support the show: https://www.2dryfm.com/donate/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy info...

Australia's water market is heralded as the best in the world, but it’s often a sore point for people who work the land, driving up costs and uncertainty when water is scarce.  It’s the invisible hand, designed to move our precious blue gold, it’s highest and most productive use.  But decades on from the market reform, who's interests is the market working in.  Thi...

For Reconciliation week, we have some special conversations with First Nations Musicians about water and country, with: Leroy Johnson  Nancy Bates and  Kaleena Briggs from Stiff Gins Watch Watch is produced by Broken Hill Community radio 2DRY.  Support the show: https://www.2dryfm.com/donate/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we have a bit of arts and culture respite, but that's not to say its not going to get political! It was our great privilege this week to interview an artist we've been following for a very long time, Murrawarri, Philipino rapper and drummer, Rhyan Claphem, who calls himself DOBBY. DOBBY has just released his debut album Warrangu, river story and it is all about the great beauty and trage...

This week on water watch, we dip into the archive to listen back on a conversation with Richard Beasley SC, who was Senior Counsel assisting to the South Australian Royal Commission into the Murray-Darling Basin Back in 2018. In a thorough investigation in 2018, the Royal Commission found that the Basin Plan was illegal, not just on the basis of a misreading of the Water Act but also that Murray-D...

This week on water watch we’re heading to desert country where Kati Thanda- Lake Eyre has begun to fill as the floods of western QLD make their way through the Lake Eyre Basin.  We hear from:  Trevor Wright, pilot and publican at William Creek 70km West of Kati Thanda Lake Eyre and Professor Richard Kingsford river ecologist, conservation biologist and Director of Ecosystem Science...

Central Australia is not usually the place we think to first for water issues, but water is life, particularly where water is scarce. This week on Water Watch we're taking you to the Arid Lands, of central Australia with Alex Vaughan the Policy and Advocacy Coordinator at the Arid Lands Environment Centre in Mparntwe Alice Springs Watch Watch is produced by Broken Hill Community radio 2DRY. ...

This week on water watch we’re going to go back to the Plans and Progress to Restore the Darling Baaka to hear a community perspective from Darryn Clifton of the Darling River/Menindee Lakes Action Group, and hear more from Allan Raine Director, Water Planning Implementation at the NSW Department of Climate Change Energy Environment And Water and Tony Townsend Murray Darling Program Leader i...

In late March enormous rainfall saw devastating floods in outback Queensland. In some places more than a year’s worth of rain fell in just one-week, breaking flood records across the region. During heavy rainfall across this landscape, a network of creeks and rivers flood vast amounts of country, and in really big floods like has occurred this year, the landscape becomes an inland ocean...

This week on Water Watch we recap the fish kills in Menindee over that past 6 years, and hear from NSW Department of Climate Change Energy Environment And Water on the progress against the recommendations of the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineers Report with Director, Water Planning Implementation Allan Raine, and Murray Darling Program Leader in Freshwater Environment Tony Townsend at NSW Fisherie...

This week we listen back to a special conversations with Barkindji Malyangapa Musician Leroy Johnson as he was launching his first album with The Waterbag Band.   Support the show: https://www.2dryfm.com/donate/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, in Part 3 of our multipart series on PFAS contamination in the Blue Mountains, we’re turning our attention to the organisations responsible for protecting public health. What have Australian authorities done to address PFAS contamination? Are their responses keeping pace with international research and the growing concerns of affected communities? And, perhaps most critically&mdas...

Imagine you moved to a quiet part of the countryside, known for its beautiful blue gums, clear running waters and maybe vocal cockatoo or two, only to learn the drinking water coming for the seemingly pristine landscape around you had been contaminated with toxic chemicals for as much as 30 years.  That’s what happened in the Blue Mountains last year, when community members tested their...

Alarmed by research across the world that links the chemical PFAS to cancers, infertility, developmental delays in children and a suite of other health issues, community members, journalists and scientists are leading the charge to discover the extent of PFAS contamination in the Australian environment.  Last year in June it was discovered that PFAS chemicals had been detected in the Blue Mou...

We're back! To kick us off for 2025 we are travelling to the clear waters of the Turon River flowing off the back of the great dividing range for the Sofala Carp Blitz.  You'll hear from carp blitz organiser and fishing enthusiast Col Gordon as we talk carp and community events.  Watch Watch is produced by Broken Hill Community radio 2DRY.  Support the show: https://www.2dryfm.com/d...

We are still on our summer break so we’ve been playing our favorite episodes from last year. This week we are traversing from the depths of the world's oceans to the mud and silt of freshwater rivers and lakes, ponds, dams and backwaters of the world. This episode we're talking about the extraordinary lives of eels.  Few people know about the vast journey that every eel makes from the b...

We are still on our summer break so we’ve been playing our favorite episodes from last year. This week we are heading out onto the Murray floodplains near the town of Swan Hill to take a tour of a special little forest called Vinifera, and hear about the controversial infrastructure project that locals fear may further damage this culturally significant place. This episode was first publishe...

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&...