A new collaboration of film, technology and Indigenous knowledge is inviting travellers to explore one of the oldest cultures on Earth.

Inspired by an ancient ceremony bringing life to Australia's waterways, Ringbalin: River Stories is a geo-located smartphone application taking travellers on a virtual exploration down the Murray Darling River.

The app featuring more than 50 hand-painted maps, guides visitors to sites of significance along the river banks where eight elders from some of the 40 First Nations tell their stories.

All GPS-coded, the sound of clap-sticks begins when users approach a story site.

Director of the Ringbalin project Ben Pederick says the app features nearly 100 films, 30 audio journeys and 20 photo stories.

"You can travel through the country and be guided by the elder," he said.

"You turn up with your iPad or iPhone, you're in place that the elder told the story, you sit down and on your screen the elder walks into frame and you're there with them.

"The idea is to be in the presence of those elders and to travel through the landscape and see the country through their eyes."

Mr Pederick says new technology has allowed these stories to be told within country.

"It's a film which exists in its pieces across 1 million square kilometres," he said.

"Aboriginal stories are so connected and so much about place and that connection to country.

"The idea is a film that comes out of trees or mountains or streams. It's almost as if the world is possessed by story."

Mr Pederick says elders from Queensland's Darling Downs to the Southern Ocean and the Coorong at the river's mouth led the project and guided the direction of the films.

"We didn't script the stories, we really worked collaboratively with each elder and their community or their family and defined the kind of journey that that elder would like to take people on in their country," he said.

"It's not a story that is told in the normal sense, it's actually a trip that the elder has designed for you to take."

Mr Pederick says many Australians still know very little about Indigenous history.

"Not only does it pre-date the colonial invasion and creation of modern Australia, but it actually tells a more complete story of Australia since invasion and settlement," he said.

"It's not only the story of the farming revolution, it's not only the story of how the land was taken up. It's also the story of all of those silent crimes and all of those sad things, it's also the story of how the rivers changed and how the trees fell."

The app is being launched today in conjunction with a panel discussion at the National Press Club in Canberra, which will be screened on ABC News24 over summer.