Our History

The journey began with a vision of the City of Brisbane and the then Lord Mayor Jim Soorley to put best practice for restoration of rivers onto the global agenda.

The vision extended to a prestigious Prize to complement International Riversymposium, an internationally recognised cutting edge forum of river management. 

The first Thiess Riverprize awarded in 1999 was an international award valued at
A$100,000. A national Prize was introduced two years later in 2001 and was valued at A$25,000. International Riversymposium is part of Riverfestival, an annual celebration of Brisbane’s people, culture and environment.

In 2003, Riverfestival initiated a separate foundation to ensure the continued funding of the Riverprizes and support of International Riversymposium – International Riverfoundation (IRF) was born.

Since 2003, Riverprize has been delivered in partnership between Riverfestival and IRF. IRF funds the prize money and Riverfestival manages the delivery of the Prize.

Our role has expanded to support twinning projects, to act as capacity builder by delivering the Sponsored Delegates Program and supporting Riversymposium, and to make river management knowledge available.