Rehydrate Australia - film screening, supper, and discussion at Pearces Creek Hall

Rehydrate Australia Comes to Pearces Creek Hall

A community screening and Q&A on Saturday 14 November explores how farmers across Australia are holding water in their landscapes, and what that could mean for the Northern Rivers.

On Saturday 14 November, Pearces Creek Hall will host a community screening of Rehydrate Australia, the documentary following farmers across the country who are restoring their landscapes with Natural Sequence Farming. Presented by Pearces Creek Talks in collaboration with Pearces Creek Hall, and supported by a Rous County Council community grant, the evening finishes with a live Q&A with Stuart Andrews of Tarwyn Park Training and Josh Wellman, a local practitioner of Natural Sequence Farming.

Produced by Tarwyn Park Training, Rehydrate Australia is a road trip from outback Queensland to Tasmania, visiting farmers who are taking on increasingly severe cycles of drought, fire and flood by rehydrating their land. Every landholder in the film is a Tarwyn Park Training graduate. Since premiering in Gympie in March 2026, the film has been viewed more than 150,000 times on YouTube and has screened at least ten times in communities from Bellingen and Byron Bay to Sydney, Goulburn and Franklin in Tasmania.

For Lismore, the questions the film asks are close to home. The Wilsons River reached a record 14.4 metres in February 2022, and in March 2025 Tropical Cyclone Alfred brought it to within 40 centimetres of major flood level. After every event, the same question comes up: what can be done further up the catchment?
Natural Sequence Farming, developed by Peter Andrews OAM over fifty years, starts with plants and water. Across much of Australia, clearing and drainage have turned our landscapes into very effective drainage systems, where rain runs off quickly and carries soil with it. NSF works to slow the flow high in the landscape, using contours, leaky weirs, ponds and plants, so more rain soaks into the soil and is released gradually rather than arriving downstream all at once.

It isn't a single answer for a floodplain like Lismore's, but it is a part of the picture that every landholder in the catchment can contribute to.
"Every flood that comes through Lismore starts as rain falling on paddocks and hillsides up in the catchment," said Stuart Andrews. "We can't stop the rain, but we can change how the landscape receives it. When we slow the flow high up and let the plants do their job, more water stays in the soil and less arrives downstream at once. That's something every landholder can play a part in."

This conversation isn't new to the region. In September 2019, Lismore City Council hosted a four-day Tarwyn Park Training course at Jiggi Hall, attended by council staff, Rous County Council, Southern Cross University and members of the Floodplain Management Committee, to explore how Natural Sequence Farming could contribute to flood mitigation. In April 2024, Stuart returned to lead council's Rural Landholder Initiative field day on the principles of landscape hydration. In all, Tarwyn Park Training has run five courses in Lismore, and many of its graduates are now putting NSF into practice on properties across the area.

The same thinking now sits within the Northern Rivers Watershed Initiative, developed by Rous County Council and funded with $5 million by the NSW Government in 2024, which includes a landscape hydration program using natural flood management techniques to slow flows, hold soil and reduce runoff in rural catchments.

Tickets are $5, with children free. Doors open at 6.30pm with a supper plate from Take Care Lismore, and the film starts at 7.30pm. Seats are limited to 70, so booking early is recommended.

The screening will be followed by a Discussion with Stuart Andrews (Tarwyn Park Training) and Josh Wellman (Banyula Farm)

The film runs for 96 minutes

$5 for adults, children 16 and under are free.

If you need to, or want to cancel, please let us know so we can offer your place to someone else. Thank-you!

A supper plate will be provided by Take Care Food (included in your ticket)

Drinks BYO

Doors and Supper Plate 6.30pm

Screening 7.15pm

This event is hosted by Pearces Creek Talks in collaboration with Pearces Creek Hall.

This project is financially supported through the Rous Community Grants Program.

Natural Sequence Farming Field Day November 15th

The screening is followed by a practical field day on Sunday November 15th at Banyula Farm in Clunes/Booyong, hosted by Tarwyn Park Training. Josh Wellman will share the processes, experience and reasoning behind the Natural Sequence Farming works implemented at Banyula Farm.

Event details and tickets ($50) are here: https://events.tarwynparktraining.com.au/events/tarwynparktraining/2415986

Questions?

Text, whatsapp or call Simon at Pearces Creek Talks on 0458 801 941