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The Lachlan River – known as the Kalari Bila in Wiradjuri – flows through the lands of Wiradjuri, Nari Nari, Mutthi Mutthi, Ngiyampaa, and Yita Yita. One of the key focuses of the work of Flow-MER is to work with First Nations peoples to support their priorities in land and water management. This has included appointing Cultural Advisors or Cultural Liaisons in each of the 10 Areas.
Within the Lachlan Area, the Flow-MER team have been working closely with members of the Aboriginal Water Committee to the Lachlan as our Cultural Advisors, one of 12 regional water committees funded through the NSW Government. Following a very successful and deeply moving cultural tour of the Lachlan, one of the priorities identified was a need to capture the stories and histories of the Kalari and its people.
It’s from this need that the Connection to Kalari Bila (Lachlan River) project was created. This project collects a diverse body of stories through interviews with families, traditional owners and individuals along the Kalari Bila.
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These interviews are guided by Cultural Advisor Isabel Goolagong, and Lachlan Lead Will Higgisson at the Centre for Applied Water Science (CAWS) University of Canberra. The stories span cultural practices, Indigenous science for the management of land and water, spiritual stories, truth telling, and history.
These stories will be compiled into the book Lachlan Kalari Bila – Sweet Water by the Ocean (working title). For those in water management, this book will offer an invitation to see the Kalari as a living cultural entity that holds memory, meaning, and connection—and to recognise that Indigenous ecological knowledge is not supplementary to effective water management, but essential to it.
The first interviews for the project commenced in 2025, and the book is expected to be completed by mid-to-late 2026. The book will be gifted back the participants of the project, as well as book repositories including AIATSIS, the National Library, and local libraries and community centres along the Lachlan. The book will also be available as a PDF resource, for anyone to access on request.
