The Downunder network

Riverbank Connect Downunder

We are building the national governing body behind a growing network of outdoor men's mental health chapters. Riverbank Connect Downunder is in its establishment phase, working toward formal incorporation so we can hold the legal structure, national insurance, and a standardised peer-support blueprint — and local communities can focus on the riverbank, not the paperwork.

The mission is to close the gap between clinical services and community-led care: small groups, outdoors, with a mental health worker on the bank. Clinical governance and care plans stay strictly with that worker's health service — Riverbank Connect is not a clinic. Mental health workers across the Downunder can register interest to start a chapter as we build this framework.

Driftwood Dreams is the original flagship chapter. It delivers Bankside — the first Riverbank Connect Downunder program — at Warrego Farm, Junabee. That is the living blueprint for every chapter that follows. Other programs can be added later the same way.

Our model

A national framework. Local chapters. The same pattern.

Built for clinical partners and community leaders who want outdoor peer support without standing up a new organisation on their own. Riverbank Connect Downunder holds the frame. Local chapters hold the riverbank. Clinical governance and care plans stay strictly with the worker's health service.

Legal structure & governance

Chapters will sit under Riverbank Connect Downunder as we complete formal incorporation — building the national not-for-profit, policies, safeguarding and operational risk frameworks, and organisational oversight.

Insurance, once incorporated

A shared insurance frame is part of what incorporation will hold, so health professionals and community leaders are not left to source cover on their own.

A standardised blueprint

Small groups, outdoor peer support, and clinical co-facilitation — Bankside as Driftwood Dreams runs it on the Condamine, standardised so it can travel. Bankside is the first program; others can follow the same way.

Led locally, backed nationally

Mental health workers and community leaders run the chapter on their own water. Riverbank Connect holds the frame so the blueprint can travel.

How Bankside runs

Not a clinic. Not a festival. A handful of blokes and a stretch of water.

Bankside at the flagship is the working pattern, and Riverbank Connect's first program. Every chapter uses the same bones so the day stays recognisable wherever it lands. Other programs can follow without changing the chapter model.

Small groups

Intimate numbers on purpose. Enough mateship for a real yarn, few enough that nobody gets lost in the noise.

A reason to show up

Fishing and being outdoors give the day a job beyond 'talking about it'. Yarn if you want to. Quiet if you don't.

Clinical co-facilitation

A mental health professional is on the bank with the peer circle — without the day feeling like an appointment. Clinical governance and care plans stay strictly with the worker's health service.

On the water, in place

Each chapter uses local river, dam, or coastline. Riverbank Connect helps source that place with chapter leaders. The blueprint travels; Warrego Farm is the flagship venue, not the only water.

What Riverbank Connect holds

The national layer — so a new region is not inventing an organisation from scratch. That includes help finding water, and kit the health service does not cover.

The national name, policies, and (as incorporation completes) legal entity
Safeguarding and operational risk frameworks, as we build them in this establishment phase
A shared insurance umbrella as incorporation completes, so chapters are not left to source cover alone
Program blueprints, starting with Bankside — group size, outdoor peer support, clinical co-facilitation
Help sourcing riverbanks and gathering places with chapter leaders — the flagship venue is not the only water
Non-clinical kit the health service does not cover — rods, bait, shirts — as Riverbank Connect is able
A pathway for health professionals and community champions to register interest and start a region

What stays with the chapter

The work on the bank — the people, the water, the welcome.

Relationships on the ground — who comes, which day, the welcome
Local cultural protocols and Acknowledgment of Country
The yarn after the last cast — on water found with Riverbank Connect, not only at the flagship farm

What stays with the health service

Clinical governance and care plans stay strictly with the worker's health service.

The mental health worker on the bank
Clinical governance and care plans — strictly with that worker's health service
Professional accountability for the blokes in that chapter

Social prescribing

Bridging the clinic and the riverbank.

Too many men fall through the gap between a waiting room and a real conversation. The aim is that a clinician can point a bloke toward the local worker the way they would a walking group. Clinical governance and care plans stay strictly with the worker's health service. Today's Bankside days at Driftwood Dreams still sit with men Will already supports through Carbal — Join Driftwood Dreams is an expression of interest, not a public drop-in or booking.

Starting a chapter

Three steps. Then your water.

1
Register interest
Health professionals tell us the region and what they are hoping to hold.
2
A conversation
We walk through the blueprint, clinical co-facilitation, and what Riverbank Connect will hold as the national frame.
3
Local water, local crew
You shape the chapter with a local worker — Bankside, or another Riverbank Connect program, on your riverbank. Same pattern as Driftwood Dreams, not the same farm.

Start a chapter

Weathered driftwood resting on a sandy riverbank

Weathered by the currents. Still finding a place to rest.

Bankside

Driftwood Dreams

Condamine River, Junabee · Finding strength along the riverbank.

Driftwood is shaped by its journey. The river knocks the sharp edges off it, carries it a long way, and one day it finds a bank where it can rest. That is the heart of the flagship chapter.

Will runs Bankside through Driftwood Dreams as a mental health worker and carer, associated with Carbal Medical Services, based in Toowoomba. He holds the health work on the bank — small groups, yarning and fishing. Clinical governance and care plans stay strictly with his health service.

Driftwood Dreams delivers Bankside at Warrego Farm, a farmstay and campground on the Condamine at 28 Roona Road, Junabee QLD 4370.

Who it is for

Open to every bloke who needs a hand.

The flagship is shaped by Aboriginal ways of looking after men — being on Country, a yarn if you want one, and getting well beside another bloke rather than alone. You do not have to identify as Aboriginal to sit with us. New chapters follow the cultural protocols of their own place. If you are a bloke who could use a safe place to land, you are welcome, wherever the water is.

That is the model. Today's Bankside days are through Will's Carbal work — not a drop-in. New chapters will open the same welcome on their own water, with their own clinical partner.

The flagship in action

Driftwood Dreams, at Warrego Farm.

Monthly Bankside days on the Condamine. Photos and stories from those days will live here, shared with permission as the network grows.

Monthly: Bankside days on the Condamine
Clinical + peer: A worker on the bank, mateship in the circle
National: A chapter framework, working toward one national body

A small group of men fishing from a riverbank at dusk — Rods in the water, no rush

A small campfire on a riverbank at twilight — Yarn after the last cast

Custom fishing polos

Riverbank Connect can help a chapter with a fishing polo — name on the chest, chapter lettering on the back — kit the health service does not cover. Burgundy is shown here; other colours are available.

Burgundy custom fishing polo, front and back, with a fishing silhouette and jumping fish graphic — Front and back — name and chapter lettering can be added

Twelve colour options for the custom fishing polo, including burgundy, navy, green, and royal blue — Colour range for local chapters

Connection over isolation

Healing happens beside another bloke, not in a waiting room. The water gives the conversation somewhere to sit.

Yarn, water, no rush

The day is held the way Bankside holds it: connection on the bank, a yarn if you want one, and a welcome that doesn't ask you to have the words ready.

Social prescribing, made human

The aim is that a clinician can point a bloke toward the local worker the way they would a walking group. Clinical governance and care plans stay strictly with the worker's health service.

Ready to help stand this up?

Start a chapter, offer a place, register interest in Bankside at the flagship, or get on board as a partner. Riverbank Connect is not taking public donations until it is incorporated.

Get involved