Response to river.
From my window at The Shed, across acres of tarmac and chain wire fences I can see the river as a narrow strip of fugitive colour, ranging from caramel to slate grey to silver - always moving and always fascinating. I can't separate the water from what happens along its banks and I can't separate the river from its history. I love the river and feel privileged to enjoy its benefits but I mourn the loss of the mudflats and wetlands that have been reclaimed and the life they supported. We have a 'culture of forgetting' but thanks to historian Raymond Evans, I remember that Brisbane was a dreadful place for recidivist convicts sent here from other settlements and more recently has a terrible history of corruption and exploitation. In the 30s, the luxury flying boat service was located on the Hamilton stretch of the river, and during WWII men worked in the heat to load supplies for American and Australian troops in the Islands. Tarmac weeds indus