Living Memory Marshalls Creek: Portraits and market pop-up
PORTRAIT SESSION
ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY
Portrait sessions by Marshalls Creek
Locals of South Golden, New Brighton and Ocean Shores are invited to join photographer Elise Derwin for free creekside portraits. Bring your family or friends, be photographed, and share your local knowledge.
Tuesday 9 December 2025
8.00—11.00am
New Brighton Farmers Market
River Street
New Brighton NSW 2483
All welcome. Free.
An environmental history
We've been digging through archives. Old newspapers. Aerial photos. Property records. We found cedar-getters and railway camps. A minor gold rush sparked by ducks. American developers, a shipping billionaire, Alan Bond, and a marina that never got built. Levee walls that pushed water somewhere else. Decades of decisions – some deliberate, some accidental – that changed how water moves through this landscape. It's an interesting story. But it's incomplete.
We need the observations of locals. A flood gauge might provide a snapshot in time but it doesn’t capture what you saw the creek do in 2022. Or what your neighbour told you about the '87 floods when you moved in. That knowledge lives with locals. And unless someone writes it down, it disappears.
Visit us our stall at the markets. We’re building an environmental history, and have maps and a timeline to share. How has Marshalls Creek changed over time? Have you noticed any changes in Marshalls Creek since you've been here?
Your stories matter — come down and tell us what you know.
A NOTE
Living Memory Marshalls Creek is not about flood mitigation or solutions for flooding in the Lower Marshalls Creek area. Our aim is to capture the unique histories of flood in your area to raise awareness of risk in the local community.
Ocean Shores Estate concept masterplan. Image courtesy of Matthew Lambourne.
About this project
In 2024, we embarked on a project we called Living Memory to document the history of North Lismore, a suburb is transitioning from a vibrant residential neighbourhood to a new future. Many residential properties in North Lismore are part of the buyback stream of the Resilient Homes Program, the largest residential buyback program in Australian history. Through portraits, reflections and historical materials, we celebrated the people and place of North Lismore.
The work revealed how the people of North Lismore have valuable insights to share with a growing number of communities as climate change brings more hazards.
Building on what we learned, we're now taking Living Memory to four more communities across the Northern Rivers: South Murwillumbah, Coraki, Ulmarra, and the communities along lower Marshall's Creek (South Golden Beach, New Brighton and lower Ocean Shores).
We're exploring and documenting the history of the rivers and stories of place, taking community portraits, and talking about what it means to live with risk. These stories become public archives, environmental histories and potential resources in each community.
We're doing all this based on a simple premise: if you know about the history of hazards in your area, you're more likely to be prepared for what might come. By sharing and listening to stories from your fellow community members, you contribute to awareness, prepare yourself, and strengthen the whole community.
__
Living Memory Lower Marshalls Creek is supported by NSW Reconstruction Authority, Southern Cross University and University of Technology Sydney. Thanks to the Brunswick Valley Historical Society for their support of this project.
Top image: Swimming and boating, New Brighton Beach, 26 November 1926.
Courtesy of Brunswick Valley Historical Society.
Ocean Shores golf course designers Robert Von Hagge, Bruce Devlin and "Boots'' Berkemeyer with course superintendent Fred Ludkte and Merv Barnes (architect) planning the course. Image courtesy of Ocean Shores Country Club.
Brunswick Heads, the bar and the breakwater in the foreground. The area for the proposed Ocean Shores Estate, before its development, is seen in the distance. Image courtesy of Ocean Shores Country Club.