More habitat for native fish

Native fish across NSW will soon be swimming more freely due to two NSW Government Environmental Trust funded projects.

The first initiative has provided native fish in the Murrumbidgee River with an additional 160 kilometres of habitat through the installation of the world's first automated Deelder fishlock at Balranald Weir in south western NSW.

Known as a Deelder fishlock, the innovative fishway originally constructed as a trial by the State Water Corporation and Department of Primary Industries in 2003, operates in the same way as a navigation lock for boats where a chamber on the downstream side of the weir fills with water until the level is equal to the upstream water level at which point the fish are released from the chamber enabling them to migrate upstream.

A grant from the Environmental Trust has enabled State Water to automate the lock's operation which is now remotely controlled from their offices in Leeton.  While the Deelder lock is gaining recognition as a valuable option for providing fish passage over low weirs, the Deelder lock at Balranald Weir is the first in the world to be fully automated.

Biological monitoring showed that the lock was highly successful in enabling a wide range of native fish species to move upstream.  The success of the project has led to further funding from the Environmental Trust to display signs for visitors at the site and produce educational material about the fish lock and its benefits for the environment.  A one day workshop is planned for May 2008 which will include an official opening and demonstration of the automated fish lock.

The second initiative, the Road Crossings Roadshow saw the Department of Primary Industries deliver a series of six workshops aimed at educating participants about how structures, such as roads, weirs, pipelines and poorly designed fishways, across waterways can restrict the movement of native fish upstream where they were once found .

The workshops also outlined several simple but very effective methods for modifying such structures to reinstate fish to hundreds of kilometres of waterways, improving the health and biodiversity of the streams, and benefiting the recreational value of those waterways.  Such strategies include modifying causeways, bridges, weirs and even older fishways to slow the water flow which allow native fish to move upstream.  Other strategies include removing older superseded structures, such as temporary stream crossings.

The workshops were held in NSW major coastal centres including Ballina, Port Macquarie, Port Stephens, Richmond, Nowra and Bega in late 2007, as part of an Environmental Trust funded project.

83 participants from local councils, Catchment Management Authorities, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of Primary Industries, Forests NSW and Roads and Traffic Authority attended the workshops.

For further information about the automated fishway at Balranlad Weir project:

• contact Lee Baumgartner by
  email lee.baumgartner@dpi.nsw.gov.au
  or phone (02) 6959 9027
• email info@environmentaltrust.nsw.gov.au
  or phone (02) 8837 6093

For further information about the Road Crossings Roadshow project:

• contact Adrianne Burke, by
  email adrianne.burke@dpi.nsw.gov.au
  or phone (02) 4916 3846
• email info@environmentaltrust.nsw.gov.au
  or phone (02) 8837 6093