River dreaming has a long history in Australia. For indigenous people rivers and waterways are important elements of Dreamtime stories. European colonists dreamt of waterways as agricultural meadows and grand canals. Today, we are still inventing dreams and visions for our waterways.
When it comes to urban development, our dreaming informs how we approach the transformation of waterways. This dreaming informs the dominant vision of the new forms of waterways in greenfield developments, and the transformation of modified rural waterways. Due to the scale of transformation of waterways since colonization, there is a lack of knowledge of pre-European waterways and their hydrology, vegetation and geomorphic form. ‘Stream dreaming ’ is required to fill this gap and these dreams are reflected in the design, targets and development controls that we set for these waterways.
Development in Sydney has shifted substantially from traditional greenfield development to being dominated by urban infill. What are our dreams for our channelised urban waterways when pre-European waterways are unable to be achieved? In stark contrast to greenfield developments stream dreams are typically absent in these highly urban waterways.
Our recent research into development controls in Sydney found that this distinct lack of stream dreaming translated directly into a lack of development controls for urban channels and waterways. Development responses continue to include covering existing channels.
This paper examines, through a series of critiques and explorations, the continuum of river dreaming for urban waterways and explores the cultural, ecological and recreational aspects of our urban waterways.