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Everything Is Water
By Simon Cleary
Published by uQP (University of Queensland Press)
ISBN 9780702268502
Most people like the water, some love watching the ocean and some love rivers, I am in the latter category. Their meanderings and the surprises seen along their flow seems touch my soul. When I began reading Everything is Water within the first few pages it quickly became apparent this was going to be interesting reading.
The experienced hiking Queenslander novelist, has had a long fascination with the Brisbane River.
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This account of his epic adventure to walk 344 km over four weeks, from the source to the mouth of the Brisbane River covers quite a variety of topics. Cleary had to decide which branch would be his starting point as he explains there are two possible sources. The Eastern Branch and Western Branch and as he writes it is difficult deciding which is the actual source, plus as expected there are also a number of tributaries that flow into the main river.
Cleary walked in solitude and with interesting companions, friends and relations, some who have working knowledge of water. My initial expectation was I would be reading purely about walking along the river and the flora and fauna he and his hiking companions would encounter.
It turns out there is a lot more to this book. While there are many stories of the plants and it made me realise just how much the pretty plant lantana is, it is also an awful weed and a hinderance to walking along these routes and to other plants. The same could be said for several other weeds. They had some pleasant and unexpected experiences such as spotting deer with their antlers about to shed or cast off their velvet, cattle, dogs who followed along for a while, numerous local birds, lungfish, cotton plants, a mannequin dummy and more.
This was a carefully planned walk whether on Cleary's own or with his companions. He tells some interesting encounters they had with people along the way and the generous hospitality they enjoyed from property owners and the drenching they experienced in heavy rainfalls.
As they walked towards the outer areas of Brisbane they became acutely aware of the pollution, air and sound and the built environment.
The narrative goes into many side stories and historic myths, some are interesting as they go into great detail but they deviate from the main focus. I found that I wanted to read these quickly so as to get back to the river and enjoy the slower path as he explores the way the Brisbane River and other rivers connect to landscapes, ecologies, their histories, their previous and current communities, peoples relationship with nature, especially through floods and droughts.
The author
Simon Cleary is the author of three novels, including The Comfort of Figs (2008), which was published after the manuscript was shortlisted for the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards. His second novel, Closer to Stone (2012), was inspired by his experiences in North Africa at the commencement of the Algerian civil war in the 1990s. It went on to win the Queensland Literary Awards People’s Choice Award. Simon’s third novel, The War Artist, was published in 2019. Everything is Water (2024) is his first work of non-fiction. He is a life-long walking and environmental enthusiast, and lives in Brisbane.
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