This interdisciplinary environmental humanities project focuses on the proposed raising of the Warragamba Dam wall in Sydney to explore the role of narrative in analysing and responding to socio-environmental controversies. It aims to develop new resources for enhancing community understanding and involvement in these complex issues, utilising narrative to enable responses that are creative, inclusive, and just.
CIs: Thom van Dooren, Emily O’Gorman, Stephen Muecke, Matthew Kearnes, Natalie Osborne, Peter Minter
This project is funded by the Australian Research Council (DP220101258)
Published outputs
to date:
‘Every chance we get, we go’:
An interview with Kazan Brown about Gundungurra Country, Burragorang Valley and the Warragamba Dam published in Aboriginal History (vol. 48), conducted by Emily O’Gorman, Grace Karskens and Natalie Osborne.
Eucalyptus histories and futures: Living and dying with hydrological infrastructures
A journal article co-authored by Thom van Dooren, Emily O’Gorman, and Grace Karskens, published in a special issue of Environment and Planning E on “Multispecies Landscapes”.
A Bird, a Flock, a Song and a Forest
A multimedia essay on the critically endangered regent honeyeater, a species that would be impacted on by the Warragamba Dam proposal. Produced by T. van Dooren, Z. Sadokierski, M. Oakey, S. Widin, T. Rissanen, and R. Crates.
Developing the Public Environmental Humanities
A journal article published by a large team (including all of the members of this research project). Published in Resistance: Journal of Radical Environmental Humanities 11(2-3).
Other outputs
to date:
Storytelling for lost and threatened places: An Environmental Humanities Symposium
2-3 June 2025
This symposium explored how place-based stories shape our understanding of, and responses to, the biodiversity and climate crises.
Organisers: Thom van Dooren, Kirsten Wehner, Cameron Muir, Andrea Gaynor, Zoë Sadokierski, and Natalie Osborne
This symposium was co-organised by several research teams working in related areas: Narrative Ecologies of Warragamba Dam Discovery Project (DP220101258); Shadow Places Special Research Initiative (SR200201032); Living on the Edge: Caring for Australia’s Threatened Places (National Museum of Australia and Sydney Environment Institute). The symposium was jointly hosted by the Sydney Environment Institute at the University of Sydney, the National Museum of Australia, the School of Humanities at the University of Western Australia, and the Visualisation Institute at the University of Technology Sydney.
Disaster Preparedness in Multispecies Worlds
11-12 July 2025
We cohosted this symposium with the Multidisciplinary Environmental Studies in the Humanities cluster at the University of Cologne, Germany.
Image credit: Sandstone “Eye” by Neal Wellons (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)