The beauty of Illawarra’s waterways are being transposed into Wollongong Art Gallery with a multi-faceted exhibition encompassing creek-walks, video, photography, artefacts and works on paper.

Walking Upstream is the culmination of an ongoing project by Lucas Ihlein, Brogan Bun and Kim Williams which began in 2014.

Read More: Woonona 9-year-old youngest ever in national songwriting award

There are more than 50 named creeks running throughout the region from Helensburgh to Minnamurra, including one which runs through the steelworks in Port Kembla, according to Ihlein.

Ihlein said the exhibition is concerned with the natural and built environment in our own neighbourhoods.

“The fact there’s so many creeks in Illawarra it’s such a unique and unusual thing. In Sydney most of the creeks are covered over by now and you wouldn’t even know that they’re there,” he said.

“When you start at sea and walk up stream along the creek you encounter all sorts of different kinds of environments from the industrial, to the suburban to the bush … wherever you live in the Illawarra you’re just five minutes away from a creek.”

The exhibition opens at the gallery Friday October 27 at 6pm, and runs until February 2018 with a series of free bushwalks.

Read More: Illawarra Cookbook to hit bookshelves later this year

Sunday October 29: Join botanist Charles Huxtable on a walk up American Creek with a focus on the myriad plant species that inhabit the riparian zones of the Illawarra. [Booked Out]

Sunday December 10: Join Dr Cath McKinnon, author of Storyland, on a walk up Mullet Creek discussing the complex histories surrounding the waterways of the Illawarra.

Sunday 28 January: Join Les Bursill, a Dharawal historian, archaeologist, anthropologist, and publisher, as we walk up Ooaree Creek (near Gerringong).

Sunday February 11: Join the Walking Upstream team on a mystery creek walk! Details to be announced closer to the date.

www.wollongongartgallery.com