Brain on Nature

Every weekend, and some weekdays too, you'll find Mudcrabs along the banks of the Cooks River. Not crustaceans, although they're slowly returning as their habitat is restored, but a group of dedicated volunteers who are rehabilitating what was once the most polluted river in Australia. With prosthetic pincers, they pick up rubbish from in and around the river. They plant trees and shrubs to revegetate bushland that's been lost, and weed and protect the new bush. This episode documents how the Mudcrabs have rehabilitated the Cooks River, and how the benefits flow two ways. For many Mudcrabs, their work connects them with natural world and improves their own health and wellbeing too. 

This episode was made on the lands of the Gadigal/Wangal people.