Dave Hullfish Bailey created the CityCat Project in collaboration with Aboriginal Elder, activist and playwright Sam Watson in 2006, and presented a further iteration in 2009. It was initiated in 2003 as an art project curated by David Pestorius for the University of Queensland, which involved the reconfiguring of a traditional dreaming site, local history and public transport services. The intention was that the project should function outside of conventional art spaces and reorient relationships between producers and audiences. Hullfish Bailey's outline for the project included the invitation to Watson to 'choreograph and theatricalise unannounced interruptions to the routine routing of Brisbane’s popular CityCat ferries'.

The site selected by Watson for the CityCat Project was the location of the Kurilpa (water rat) Dreaming on the river bank at South Brisbane. The location also marked the boundary from which, historically, Aboriginal people were excluded from the city after dark. In consultation with appropriate authorities, Bailey and Watson organised three to four Aboriginal people to gather at the site, while another small group would board the CityCat ferry on the opposite bank. As the ferry approached the Kurilpa site it diverged from its usual route, slowed to a stop and faced its bow towards the river bank. The two groups silently acknowledged each other with a simple hand gesture before the ferry resumed its normal course. The interruption was unannounced to the public, and the Aboriginal people aboard the ferry were the only source of information to the other passengers, prompting conversational exchanges that otherwise would not have taken place.