A River Made Us

It was by a narrow margin that filmmaker, Heather Cassidy’s father was able to be there when she was born. In the summer of ’82/’83, Mike Cassidy was arrested fighting for his belief: that the Franklin River should not be damned. Thirty years on, his daughter goes on a journey to discover how high the stakes were, what was really at risk, and whether her generation can live up to the example they set. When he passed away last year, Mike Cassidy left a diary of his treacherous ten day rafting adventure on the Franklin to join the blockade. Armed with this, Heather brings together some of the blockaders’ children to join rafter Elias Eichler, and wilderness photographer, Wolfgang Glowacki, in a journey that will change their lives.

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This is possibly the first day of the rafting trip, when we finally get around to it.

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My grandma, Muriel Sluce, painted this picture of the Ross Bakery @tasmania. It’s about time we turned the calendar page to #movember2014

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River Trips

Rafting operator, Elias, and wilderness photographer Wolfgang, will be rafting the Franklin River at the end of March. It will be an 8 day trip and they two pieces of homework. Firstly they will be taking GPS makers at a range of points along the way - this is so when we launch our support team before and after shoot we can be exactly sure of where our supply drops will be (at least that is how we envision it to go).

Secondly, they will have Mike Cassidy's diary of his 1983 trip to join the blockade, and will be photographing sections of the river referred to in it. This is going to form part of our pitch document. Some of those pictures will be posted here.

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Catch Up on Lost Time

Hi folks. This project is still happening, but the facebook page www.facebook.com/arivermadethem has seen the benefit of the updates. We'll be making more use of the tumblr from now on.

Keep following if you will :)

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Tasmanian Aboriginal consultation and involvement

The first written step towards Tasmanian Aboriginal consultation and involvement is underway. Having been taught in primary school that there were no more Tasmanian Aborigines, and then discovering some were my classmates in high school was the first wake up call that something was amiss. 

The Franklin River simply could not have been saved without Aboriginal assistance and the significance of Kutikina Cave that influenced UNESCO decision to declare it World Heritage. Therefore it is impossible to tell the story without them.

Time to put my money where my mouth is  

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At the 30th Anniversary Dinner on Friday with Bob Brown, Dale Baldwin, and Liz Knox at MONA

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This project is in development and needs your assistance. We would love to chat with you if you are the child of a blockader looking for adventure, or if you have a great story about the river.

We will also soon be launching a Pozible crowd funding campaign, so stay tuned.

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Looking forward to this tomorrow night!

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Mike Cassidy is the man on the far right. Beside him is Peter Thompson. Standing in the centre at the back is Bob Brown. Sitting in the centre at the front is Nigel Davies and to his left is Mary-Jane Mahony. The chap standing on the left is Dale Lissen and his father Denis Lissen is sitting in front.

We don't know the rest of the people or who took the photo. Can you help?

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As the first official "break out the cameras" act, our trusty crew will be at MONA on Friday 19th to capture a great night Celebrating 30 Years of World Heritage for Franklin. Apart from documenting the night, we will be making connections with people we hope to be in touch with as the project progresses. If you've bought a ticket, come up and say hello!