I built a go-pro attachment for our row boat so that it can film underwater in the Cooks River. I have rowed from Botany Bay to Earlwood down the Cooks River twice, the quantity of water diminishes as you travel inwards, it’s not actually that deep. On the footage you can see jellyfish, plastic, little fish, crabs, trolleys. Under the water there is this thick mud that covers everything. One day the go-pro fell off the attachment and so we looked for it in the river at the lowest lowest tide, in the spot where I think it happened. We didn’t find the go-pro. It’s still in the river somewhere.

The most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen (it still makes me feel a little sick even now) is a giant sodden teddy bear face down in the mangroves, behind Canterbury Racecourse.

The river is pretty, but in a soft focus.

SCENT

Mangroves at low tide (fruity and a bit rank), salty, eucalyptus (Gough Whitlam Park)

By

Clare Britton