Strabo Rivers is a principled advisory firm dedicated to creating a just and sustainable society.

Led by Principal and Director Sebastian Vanderzeil, Strabo Rivers supports clients in navigating complex water and flood-related challenges. Our work focuses on rigorous, decision-ready advice across regulatory economics, business case development, investment strategy, and flood management.

Under Sebastian’s leadership, Strabo Rivers has built a reputation as a trusted advisor to water utilities, infrastructure proponents, and councils across Australia, supporting projects where clarity, defensibility, and sound judgement matter.

Sebastian brings more than two decades of experience across infrastructure and investment advisory. His work has helped clients secure funding, navigate regulatory processes, and progress complex projects through critical decision points.

About

Our Ethics

Our work is about more than business outcomes. We focus on helping clients succeed, while recognising the broader social and environmental responsibilities that come with major decisions. This perspective shapes how we work, the advice we give, and the projects we choose to support. 

Our Story

Strabo (64 or 63 BC – c. AD 24) was a noted geographer who combined narrative with quantitative assessment to produce vivid, practical descriptions of regions across Europe, Eurasia, and North Africa. He was known for understanding the relative strengths and limitations of places by considering economic, social, and environmental factors together.

Like Strabo, our work seeks to map complexity — bringing structure, evidence, and judgement to problems that sit at the intersection of economics, place, and long-term outcomes.

Strabo Rivers was formed as a deliberate, hands-on practice to apply rigorous financial and economic thinking directly to real-world problems. That approach draws on Sebastian Vanderzeil’s more than 20 years’ experience in infrastructure and public-interest investment, including formative training in New York finance, and an early influence from a family deeply engaged in environmental leadership.

Generative AI Usage

At Strabo Rivers, we prioritise rapid delivery and use generative AI to make our work faster and clearer — not to replace human thinking. AI helps us organise ideas, test assumptions, and communicate complex problems more effectively, but every piece of advice we give is grounded in real evidence and expert judgment. We sometimes use anonymised or de-identified project material within AI tools to help structure thinking, but we never use information that could identify clients or disclose sensitive details. We always combine AI-assisted drafting with deep technical and economic analysis.