Native fish access more Macquarie River

NSW Parliamentary Secretary for Natural Resources and Member for Dubbo Troy Grant has welcomed a project to give native fish in the Macquarie River improved access to habitat near the Macquarie Marshes.

The $224,000 State Water project at Bulgeraga Creek was funded by the NSW and Australian governments through the Rivers Environmental Restoration Program (RERP) which includes investment in infrastructure to improve the health of rivers and wetlands.

The project involved replacing an existing creek crossing with open culverts, Mr Grant said.

“The previous crossing structure was not conducive to fish passage, so the project provided the culverts to enable fish to swim through the structure and access new stretches of river,” Mr Grant said.

“There has been a considerable amount of involvement in this project from Dubbo businesses, including project contractors Mathews Civil who started construction in June 2011.

“Culverts were sourced from Rocla Culverts’ Dubbo office and some rock was sourced from Warren.

“The team from NSW Department of Primary Industries (Fisheries) in Dubbo provided designs for the project which were prepared by GHD,” he said.

The provision of fish passage past the crossing will enable the native fish species such as Murray Cod and Golden Perch to migrate to feed, spawn and seek refuge.

The fishway is one of six fish passage projects State Water is managing under the RERP and one of around 20 the corporation is managing state-wide.

RERP is jointly funded by the NSW Government and the Australian Government’s Water for the Future - Water Smart Australia Program and aims to arrest the decline of wetlands through water recovery and effective management of environmental water.

Media contact: Belinda Stahorn (02) 6882 3577