Author(s): Strevens Steve

Australian Reference

Steve Strevens explores Australia's great waterways - the Murray - from its source in Victoria's high country to its mouth in the Great Southern Ocean. He tells the story of the people and communities who have lived along its banks and how the river has changed since European settlement.

Steve Strevens has lived on the Murray for almost 40 years. During that time he has fished and swum in its waters, climbed and swung from its trees, collected firewood from its forests, kicked a footy along the flats nearby, and made some of his most important decisions sitting on its banks. He even spread his father's ashes on its waters. Slow River is his ode to the Murray and an exploration of why and how it is more than just a river.

Bumping along in his ute and steering his old tinnie, Steve explores the full length of the Murray from its source in a small swampy puddle hidden in a clump of tea trees in the mountains to where it meets the sea. This is a rich and generous portrait of the river, its many moods and the people and communities who depend upon it for their sanity and survival.