At the same time ACT artists John Shortis and Moya Simpson have been working on One River - Life Giver, the story of the Murray-Darling basin and Canberra, the basin's largest city.

Rolling across five states and territories, the basin's rivers connect a community of 2 million; it is a link the artists are underlining with songs to celebrate Canberra's centenary.

Their work surfaced on Sunday on a wind-whipped Aspen Island, where they were accompanied by the cascading tempo of the Carillon and a choir of 80.

Their songs are one of 10 artistic projects around the basin on the same theme.

''I have always thought of the Murray-Darling basin being somewhere else; never thought that we actually joined it - by the lake to the Molonglo, to the Murrumbidgee, to the Murray,'' Sortis said.

''It never dawned on me that when people talked about the Murray-Darling, we're included. It is good to raise awareness that we are part of the basin, that the lake is part of the Molonglo River.''

Community choirs Worldly Goods and The Cyrenes performed and recorded One River - Life Giver accompanied by lead carillonist Lyn Fuller.

August, a notorious month for winds, propelled waves across the lake, upended garbage bins and sent hats and canvas chairs on an unrelenting dance across the island.

Shortis and Simpson are better known for political satire.

''We went to [river junction town] Wentworth as part of this project and saw the incredible joining of the two rivers,'' Sortis said.

''The Murray has come through very different countryside to what the Darling has come through, so they are very different colours.''