What happens when your great Australian dream gets washed away? And then tries to drag your marriage down with it? 

Lismore resident Rob – a happily married empty-nester, enjoying his late middle age – has always defined himself by the quality of the roof over his head and the state of his family life. Solid. Safe. Stable. But when the 2022 flood hits, he and his wife Sal find themselves homeless, their lives now the very opposite of secure and predictable. 

While government and insurance investigations drag on, Rob and Sal are left with no choice but to rent while they wait to find out the fate of their badly damaged home. After a mix-up with contracts, they reluctantly agree to share a home unit in Ballina with strangers – a slightly older hippy couple, also impacted by the floods, who couldn’t be more different from their new flatmates. 

A two-bedroom, one-bathroom flat with very thin walls … Surely they can stick it out for six months – they’re all grown-ups, right? As each awkward, yet entertaining week rolls into the next, they graciously try to deal with one another’s personal quirks while waiting for life to get back to normal. 

Only life has bigger plans for all four of them. 

Downstream is a story about the forsaken dreams and buried secrets that lie below the surface of our everyday lives – until they reappear in the aftermath of trauma and disruption. With compassion and humour, Annika Johansson explores what ‘marriage’ and ‘home’ really mean, when you are faced with the prospect of losing them both.