River linkage

By Kath Gannaway
TWO amazing photographic journeys and diverse community projects with the Yarra River as their inspiration are part of the Connect to the Yarra exhibition launched at the Upper Yarra Arts Centre on 6 March.
The exhibition features a collection of 20 photographs taken by father and son photographers, A. G. and A. J. Campbell on their Yarra River journey from Warburton to Baw Baw in 1904, and 20 by adventurer and photographer David Roberts, taken on his canoe journey from the source of the Yarra to the bay 100 years later.
More than 240 students also took part introducing the Upper Yarra School Cluster’s Sustainable Technologies Creating Our Future project, and Melbourne Water conducted Active Catchment and Water Watch workshops.
Schools Innovations and Excellence teacher with the cluster Kate Le Rossignol said there had been tremendous enthusiasm for the program which arose from a meeting with Melbourne Water’s Water Watch organisers.
“Our project will continue through learning about the river, testing water on a monthly basis, learning how to recycle water, relating to the river and learning about it as a sustainable living process,” Ms Le Rossignol said.
Two panels of another Yarra inspired project, The Long Yarra Quilt, are also on display, one of them the work of the Steel’s Creek Stitchers group.
The Long Yarra Quilt is being made and assembled by communities of the shires which border the Yarra River and depicts stories of the river.
“These are stories of extraordinary beauty and diversity,” project officer Kate Whitehouse said.
“The Long Yarra quilt website has begun to document these unique stories as a way of enriching the experience of the quilt and our journey along the Yarra,” she said.
The exhibition is at the Upper Yarra Arts Centre until the end of March.