Waters of the Pallinup run deep

North Stirlings Pallinup Natural Resources has invited the Great Southern community to share their stories of the Pallinup River.

Natural resource management officer Ellie Stone said she would like to see locals share their photos of the river and listen to each individual’s story on the day.

“We’re trying to revisit the history of our Pallinup River to see what we’ve been using the river for and how we see our river now,” Ms Stone said.

The Pallinup River’s headwaters begin south of Katanning and it is one of the longest rivers in the region as it travels through Borden and Gnowangerup.

North Stirlings Pallinup Natural Resources has also received $53,000 of funding from State Natural Resource Management to further evaluate actions to be taken to improving the condition of the Pallinup River.

“We’re also going to look through all previous stories and documents with a scientific point of view and see how the river has changed over time,” Ms Stone said.

“We just want to capture the stories and make a memoir book out of them and ask our community how they would like to see our river now and how it has changed throughout the years.”

Locals have been using the Pallinup River for agricultural purposes for the past 100 years.

The river has been threatened by salinity, waterlogging, weed invasion and erosion throughout those years.

“It has been through a lot — it was flooded back in the 1950s and it has been flooded again in the last two years,” Ms Stone said.

The North Stirlings Pallinup Natural Resources project is also supported by experts such as Steve and Geraldine Janicke from Albany.

Mr and Mrs Janicke have extensive knowledge of the Pallinup River and will help run the Stories of the Pallinup River night as well as carry out surveys to collate data, stories and information to share with the community.

“With agriculture and all of our land uses, it’s just time to check on it and see how it’s travelling over time,” Ms Stone said.

Stories of the Pallinup River will be held on Tuesday, July 25, at the Gnowangerup Borden Pavilion function centre at 6.30pm.