The river: Kokonnengar

Name: Codi
Price range: $

It’s been documented that the name of the Leven River as it was known and spoken about by the old people of this place is the Kokonnengar River. It would be beautiful if we could capture that and return the name back to the river.

The river is known to be 99-odd kilometres long, starting behind Black Bluff mountain. It winds its way down around the side of Black Bluff, through Loongana, and then comes down and heads through the Leven Canyon.

Then it flows down from the Leven Canyon through some beautiful forest and comes out into Gunns Plains. From Gunns Plains, about 20 km down, it then comes down into Perkins Flats and beyond.

It’s recorded where people frequented the river up and down from the coast to Loongana and beyond. There’s a myriad of archaeological sites that are still here, and huge grassland areas and places where people lived and thrived for thousands and thousands of years.

Leven River sunset 0320 by Tilde Bergstrom — Sunset on the Kokonnengar / Leven River. Photo: Tilde Bergstrom

I don’t really know of many other places, at least in Tasmania, where this sort of corridor exists next to a river that’s this accessible.

And yet has the most outstanding scenery and places that you could find pretty much in the world.

When we look at a river, the river basically connects all the places that we’re talking about (the central coast, Dial Range, Leven Canyon, Black Bluff mountain). It’s the thread that weaves them all together. And at the moment it’s one of the only rivers left in Tasmania that hasn’t got a dam on it or is in some way interrupted, which in its own right is pretty special as well.

Leven River kayaker 0605 by Tilde Bergstrom — Kayaker on the Kokonnengar / Leven River. Photo: Tilde Bergstrom

We can basically look at it like it’s a spine of the cultural landscape from the headwaters to the ocean. And as we’re exploring those sorts of understandings - which has always been an Indigenous way of thinking - the river is pretty much a central piece of a living landscape within a catchment.

Kuno

Connecting you with the best thing that has happened to the Universe - planet Earth

View group

Then it flows down from the Leven Canyon through some beautiful forest and comes out into Gunns Plains. From Gunns Plains, about 20 km down, it then comes down into Perkins Flats and beyond.

It’s recorded where people frequented the river up and down from the coast to Loongana and beyond. There’s a myriad of archaeological sites that are still here, and huge grassland areas and places where people lived and thrived for thousands and thousands of years.

I don’t really know of many other places, at least in Tasmania, where this sort of corridor exists next to a river that’s this accessible.

And yet has the most outstanding scenery and places that you could find pretty much in the world.

We can basically look at it like it’s a spine of the cultural landscape from the headwaters to the ocean. And as we’re exploring those sorts of understandings - which has always been an Indigenous way of thinking - the river is pretty much a central piece of a living landscape within a catchment.