Community storytelling
We Watched Our River Rise: A children's book written by the young people of Maribyrnong
We Watched Our River Rise, the children’s book written by young authors from the Maribyrnong community launched in October 2025 with a book signing and reading by the young authors. The book continues to be shared amongst families and educators.
The idea for this book came from the Maribyrnong Community Strengths and Opportunities Workshop. It was born from the desire for young people to tell their collective stories and enable young people to contribute to the story in a way that empowers them.
This book was created by six young people impacted by the 2022 flood. Over four workshops, they shared their lived experiences in a safe, supported environment with child counsellors present, selected the characters, and made content decisions about what should go on each page. They also worked with the illustrator, Tam Bower, to shape the imagery to complement the story.
We Watched Our River Rise is accessible to:
The project was delivered with 100 Story Building and supported by child counselling experts from cohealth to enable a safe and supportive environment.
Mighty Stories, Mighty Community: Short film series
A series of films has been produced about community stories and experiences and screened at an event held to mark the third anniversary in October this year.
The short film series will be available to view online soon.
Thanks to all the residents that contributed to the films.
Public Artwork installation at Coulson Gardens
A public artwork has been installed to memorialise the Maribyrnong River Flood based on community experiences.
The public art project was proposed by the community at the Maribyrnong Community Strengths and Opportunities workshop in August 2024 and included:
- Three community meetings including two with the artist
- Community representative on the artist selection panel
- Survey to seek words and themes for artwork
A further community workshop was held in July 2025 for community to provide feedback on the concept plan design and enable community voices to be reflected in the artwork.
The artwork can be viewed at Coulson Gardens, The Esplanade end in Maribyrnong.