As Australia’s rivers and catchments continue to experience accelerating climatic, ecological, and social change, stream‑management professionals are required to lead in conditions of uncertainty, complexity, and contested values. The 12th Australian Stream Management Conference (12ASM) highlights the need for practitioners to explore “Living and evolving with change”, reflecting on three decades of progress while confronting emerging challenges in waterway management.
This 60‑minute interactive workshop invites participants to strengthen the courageous and adaptive leadership required for this moment. Grounded in the Peter Cullen Water & Environment Trust’s distinctive leadership principles—Speak truth to power; Use knowledge wisely; Be led by Country; Lead together; Forge new paths—this session blends short provocations, practical tools, and authentic stories from Peter Cullen Trust Fellows. These Fellows bring diverse, cross‑sector experience from science, policy, First Nations knowledge, engineering, environmental flows, community engagement, and integrated catchment management. Their stories illuminate what it means to navigate the “fuzzy edges” where innovation, collaboration, and discomfort coexist.
Guided by facilitator Rosie Wheen, an experienced leadership practitioner known for creating safe, energising spaces that enable honest reflection and courageous action, participants will explore how to move beyond fear and fatigue toward agency, connection, and shared purpose.
Through structured small‑group activities, participants will leave with:
• one practical leadership tool;
• two new or deepened professional connections; and
• a clearer understanding of how their own leadership can contribute to resilient, adaptive stream‑management practice.
This workshop supports 12ASM’s commitment to collaborative learning, debate, and the advancement of sustainable, community‑centred waterway management in a rapidly changing world.