Shed Tears for the River is a sponsored documentary, and is notable as the first film made by the South Australian Film Corporation, set up and financed by the South Australian state government. It celebrates the indigenous identification with river and land, and then looks at the degradation and destruction of the natural environment of the Murray river system in South Australia by human activities … riverboats, houseboats, leisure craft, shacks, development and the filling in of swamps, agriculture and industry and their polluting ways, whether via chemicals, detergents, excrement, fertilizers, barrages, locks, and salts produced by irrigation.