Home again - thinking about the the North Esk and Tamar's silt/mud

The North Esk River at low tide revealing the silt 

I am working on a new project based around the site where the silt builds at the juncture of the South Esk River, the Tamar Estuary and the North Esk River in Launceston.

i am interested in the City's relationship with this silt.

I love the silt or mud I call it, and I think it's beautiful, but I haven't spoken to anyone who lives in Launceston who has anything but distain for it.

Comments I've gathered about the silt from taxi drivers over the last week, when I've asked why people in Launceston dislike the silt in the Tamar and North Esk:

It stinks

It's unsightly

It's so ugly at low tide

They don't like it

It's toxic

It stinks

The North Esk River at low tide, and remnants of the old port in Launceston






Duck footprints in the mud

I was talking to Rob who drove me to the airport in the shuttle bus, 
he used to moor his fishing boat on the Tamar in Launceston 
(the 2 images above) but the intersection of the North Esk and Tamar
becomes such a bottle neck with the build up of silt that he couldn't 
always get his boat through and down the Tamar out into Bass Straight.
So he's shifted it further down the Tamar where its wider.
When I come to Launceston in January 2017 he's offered to take me 
down the Tamar and out into Bass straight in his boat, so I can look 
back at where the Tamar cuts into the land. We may even have 
flathead for dinner.