Kayaking the sickest urban river in Australia

BAD RIVER - The Cooks River: Australia's sickest urban river is located in the glamorous and famously pretty city of Sydney. This makes sense, given it’s also Australia's largest, hard-surfaced, drainified, leaky-sewered, city. In my little red kayak I decided to trace all 23km of the Cooks River, inspired to do so after paddling my boyhood river over 4 days in the name of Backyard Adventuring. Finding it not only challenging, but shocking in terms of its ill health, I’ve since shifted from wanting to see the wildest and most pristine places on earth, to the most degraded and sick. This is a journey of ill-health, sadness and hope; putting a test to the local saying, ‘if you fall in, you’ll dissolve’.

BAD RIVER: THE COOKS RIVER

Produced and Directed by
BEAU MILES

Produced and Edited by
MITCH DRUMMOND

Producer
JODI EVANS

Filmed by
MITCH DRUMMOND
CHRIS ORD
BRETT CAMPBELL
& BEAU MILES

Final Sound Mix by
JAMES DOBSON

Maps and Colour
BRETT CAMPBELL

Scrip Support
CHRIS ORD

Supported by Screen Australia
And YouTube through the
Skip Ahead initiative

[pickuptrash]

I can very much understand your frustation. I´ve been doing river clean-ups for almost a year now and there is so much trash. All kinds of plastics, car tires, I even found motor oil containers. It´s just terrible so see all this thrown into our rivers. I really hope that through videos like yours this problem will get a lot more attention. Goodonya

[adamkarcz]

I run the same path roughly 3-4 times a week. After a year plus of passing the same glass bottle, I stopped my run, picked it up, and recycled it. I've now made picking bottles and plastic part of my regular runs. In fact I feel bad if I haven't at least picked up one thing on a run and disposed of it properly. It's watching films like this that push me to keep at it. Keep up the amazing work Beau!

[shona]

This man's storytelling ability is incredible. The little back in time segment was brilliant.

[joshuafoulds]

I am usually a pre-dawn runner, but after a rare afternoon run in the sun I noticed just how trash covered my usual routes are. I have now gone on a few runs with my kid's stroller, some trash bags, and rubber gloves to start the clean up process. Thanks for the inspiration!

[Matoakas]

Give this man his own tv-series!
Such a natural entertainer. Just by being himself! Keep up the good work lad!

[Hungrydawgsrunfaster]

“Feeling feral is perhaps the most liberating space a human can dwell…” those sentences literally hit me and made me feel 10 again. Excellent use of words.

[大草有里枝]

I'm a kayak guide in Japan. It was really shocking for me to see lots of plastic garbage in the sea or coastline. I learned Australia is the same as Japan from your video. Thank you for sharing it. We have to change our lifestyle.

[stevethebeast]

As a Sydney sided myself, I drive past the river everyday and think nothing of it. We think about doing things to help but never seem to get around to doing them. This makes me feel so much more motivated to be honest. I never thought I’d ever feel so connected to the land I’ve lived on for my whole life. I want to help now. Not for praise or attention, but for the land itself. Truly inspiring.

[shermanator]

I reackon cleaning up these sort of waterways would be perfect for people serving a community service sentence. They'd be doing good for the local community, the environment, the local infrastructure, plus it'd be a hard and unpleasant enough experience to act as a significant deterrent.

[MoosesValley]

For the last 25 years, I lived near beautiful, almost pristine Aussie beaches, and enjoyed morning and afternoon beach walks while marvelling at their beauty. And every day for me - every single day - was "Cleanup Australia Day", picking up the rubbish that lazy, careless tourists and locals had left behind, and rubbish that had washed up onto the beach from elsewhere. During this time, I removed 100's of wheelie bins full of rubbish from these beaches. My parents did the same. As did a few other locals. Most people would look at me with stunned amazement as they stood by and watched me drag away everything from car tyres to bags full of plastic bottles, discarded rubbish, and washed up bait bags, but they rarely joined in the effort. Sometimes people ask me if I want to take part in this year's Cleanup Australia Day, and I just shake my head. I do it everyday. Anyway, really appreciate your work and the tour of Cooks River, although it was heart breaking to see the rubbish ... +1 Like. +1 Subscriber.

[Luminary]

I can relate to this, I have been clearing up the rural roads near my home for the last few years. Once, a person driving past stopped and asked why I was "dumping garbage". I showed her the bags of trash in my car and she was surprised. She told me that she lived less than a kilometer away yet she never stopped to pick up trash. She thanked me and drove off. I have never seen anyone else cleaning the roadside. This video made my day. Thank you.

[BrandonMaki]

Also worth keeping in mind that most of the plants that are in the 'wild' areas you're going through are invasive weeds that have carpetted the joint.

[GrnMtnMom]

Beau, I just shared this with my over 300 newsletter subscribers and volunteers here in SE Vermont (USA). I stumbled across this video today, quite by happy accident (hat tip: Bob Ross). In 2000, my husband and I were walking around the town we'd just moved to, and found our way to a bridge spanning a lovely river. Midway across, I hopped up to look over the railing because I love rivers...I wanted to see a duck or beaver or fish or something. Instead, I saw tires, shopping carts, and cement blocks in the water. "That's terrible!" I sputtered..."Somebody should DO something about it!" My husband elbowed me in the ribs and responded, "Well, YOU'RE 'somebody'." He was right. I got started, with just a couple of co-workers that I roped into helping - and I've never stopped. I'm currently organizing my 23rd annual RiverSweep cleanup, an event that is just one of many that I conduct as Founder and Director of the Black River Action Team (which, by the way, I run in my 'spare time' from my full time desk job).

"You're 'somebody'" continues to be my mantra, the core of my mission of stewardship - it's up to each and every one of us to take the time to step up, step in, and be willing to get filthy in order to keep our river clean and healthy. I watched your video with emotions that ranged from aghast outrage to agape inspiration. Good on ya, mate!!! Keep up the incredible work.

[ats-]

Bloody hell, this should be shown on television here in Aus, we give stick to places like Indo for having filthy garbage filled rivers while most of us don't even realise that we have them too, we just keep ours conveniently out of mind out of site.

[bricks]

Beau is one of those friends you wish you can see more often

[Grxmlvn]

You are doing absolutely phenomenal work mate. I’m from New Zealand and our rivers are becoming much the same; the green washing and denial from the people is disgusting. I hope we can let nature heal the way it needs too, and soon.

[peterwalpole]

Watched this and immediately went outside and picked up litter for 5 hours. I think I live on the cleanest block in New York City now. What a way to spend a day - thanks for the inspiration!

[threalharrydubois]

"felt like doing something illegal by coming in and doing this" - great sentence. I love how you shed light on different perspectives and things that should matter a lot more than they do in our everyday lives.

[RaigarRogue]

You’re a good man Beau - you’ve inspired me to get out and tidy the country lane by my house this evening after work. Something I’ve done before and stopped doing out of frustration, but you are right we all need to show our environments some love - if we don’t, who will.

[ptarushasagame]

This hurts me and inspires me at the same time. I live in Alaska and I often see tourists leaving used diapers, beer/soda cans, snack sized chip bags, and plenty of other things on the banks of our once pristine riverbanks and coastlines. Not saying locals don't do it too but the massive influx of tourism in the summers really blows your mind when you see the impact is has on nature.