Interdisciplinary river science evolved from two roots founded in quantitative and empirical studies during the 1970s. One advanced reductionist approaches to lotic research dominated by work on small streams in temperate environments, which were amenable to monitoring and experimental manipulation. The other advanced research on the fisheries ecology of large tropical floodplain rivers characterized by a predictable flood regime. Concepts emerged to underpin the new river science, including the River Continuum Concept, the Flood Pulse Concept, and the concept of Riparian Ecotones. From the late 1970s the two strands were integrated and applied to regulated rivers. Research on the ecological responses to changes in flow, temperature and sediment regimes below dams, weirs and abstractions challenged and developed the emerging concepts. These concepts were also applied to rivers in different geographical settings including dry-land rivers having highly variable flows and unpredictable flow regimes. This paper provides a perspective on how research on dry-land rivers has contributed to the development of river science by tracking the international contributions of Keith Walker’s research on the regulated River Murray, Australia.