Against the Tide is an experimental interactive audio experience set on the Parramatta River as audiences take to the waters on the ferry. Whether you are travelling from Sydney to Parramatta, or from Parramatta to Sydney, Against the Tide offers a unique glimpse of the stories the River holds with each journey. No two journeys will be exactly the same. Your experience depends entirely on the choices you make, and where you make them. Through your journey, you will both take, and give back to the River, stories that have unfolded upon the Parramatta River - Sydney's first highway - and its shores.

Against the Tide explores memory, memorialising and forgetting. It takes its audiences on a path less trodden, westward, and invites them to participate in a movement against forgetting what has happened there. It asks, ‘what has happened here?’ as well as, ‘what still could unfold?’. It is an innovative work for its scale – the navigable length of the River – and for its form.

Against the Tide puts history-making in the hands of its audience. Against the Tide challenges traditional viewpoints on the founding and habitation of Sydney, flipping the mythology of the glittering prize of the harbour on its head and reversing the traditional direction of understanding as we look westwards for answers. It also aims to throw light on the power structures of the city, through its use of this vital waterway, uncovering a history of neglect and corruption, as well as the power of ordinary people to arrest the misuse of their homes and greenspace.

The elasticity of time and the competing viewpoints we are drawing into tension will lead to a contested and rich artwork that will enable our audience to see patterns forming through time, in the history of this river, which in turn is the history of Australia.

Community engagement and storytelling have been key elements of the development of the work. Through a series of continuing relationships with local elders, consultants and artists we aim to include a significant amounts of Aboriginal content. We are engaging Aboriginal community members, the local Chinese community, people experiencing homelessness in Parramatta, old maritime and ferry veterans, former and current inmates of correctional facilities, and former patients from places like the Gladesville Mental Health Hospital.