The Tenterfield Creek Restoration Project underway by OzFish aims to improve water quality and restore fish habitat and that means better fishing for Tenterfield locals. It will also benefit the whole community through the improvement of activities such as bird watching, nature walking and even canoeing.
Locals have concerns about sections of banks eroding, an increase of weeds and litter and reduced sightings of platypus, native fish and birds.
The OzFish Tenterfield Chapter are working on two projects on the Creek, the first supported by the Federal Government’s Community Environment Program and the second they assisted Tenterfield Shire Council to be successful in a grant from the NSW Government’s Environmental Trust.
For the past several years, volunteers and community members for OzFish have been kicking goals by removing vast amounts of rubbish from the popular Tenterfield Creek during Clean Up Australia Day events since 2017.
During this time, they have removed over 1 tonne of rubbish, made up of plastic, foam, and glass bottles, fruit juice containers, cigarettes butts, several tyres and even a bicycle frame dumped in the waterway.
Tenterfield Creek attracts an enormous amount of debris and the cleanup work has definitely been challenging at times of drought and floods. OzFish will continue this work to address the source(s) of the issue and ensure that the volunteer group can assist in moving the Creek towards becoming more healthy and litter-free.
OzFish has identified Tenterfield Creek as one of the key creeks that the threatened fish, the Purple Spotted Gudgeon calls home. The OzFish Tenterfield Chapter has set out to ensure that the Gudgeon has some of the best habitat in Australia to call home and they’ve adopted the Creek and are working to improve the quality and quantity of habitat available for fish and fishing.
Purple Spotted Gudgeons are small (~15cm) and robust with a rounded head, a relatively small mouth and a rounded tail. They are generally dark chocolate in colour along the back, fading to pale fawn on the belly, with a number of distinguishing markings. These include black to grey patches on the sides, which are surrounded by numerous white and red spots that brighten during breeding. The fins are yellow in colour, darkening towards the extremities.
The next installment to the Tenterfield Creek Restoration work is planting native trees and shrubs along the waterway. These trees are vital to the survival of native fish by attracting all kinds of life including insects, frogs, snakes, lizards and birds. They’re additionally important in providing shade to the pools, thus preventing the sun from overheating the water.
Tenterfield Creek is bouncing back after a series of weather events caused widespread damage to the area and massive disruptions to the town’s water supply. Thanks to the tireless efforts of the OzFish Northern Tablelands Chapter, a series of restoration activities is underway to restore the waterway to its natural state.
OzFish Unlimited, Australia’s leading fishing conservation movement, is set to embark on a habitat restoration project that will see 1.5km of creek revamped for the Purple Spotted Gudgeon.
Local community groups have banded together to restore Tenterfield Creek with the project set to commence over the next few months. It will cover 3km of Tenterfield Creek and surrounding park land from Manners Street bridge to Naas Street, with bank stabilisation, revegetation, weed control and prevention of excess sedimentation to be being carried out. The project is a partnership between Tenterfield Council and OzFish Unlimited, The Bird Watching Institute and Moombahlene Local Aboriginal Land Council.
AUGUST 2019, Tenterfield Star Tenterfield Creek will benefit from grant funding of $48,140 for 'community restoration'. The project is a partnership between council and community groups OzFish, the Bird Watching Institute and Moombahlene Local Aboriginal Land Council. The project, Creek Corridors - Community Restoration of Tenterfield Creek, covers three kilometres of creek bank and surrounding park land from Manners Street bridge to Naas Street, with restoration through bank stabilisation, revegetation, weed control and prevention of excess sedimentation to be carried out in three stages.
If you would like to partner with us or would like to know more about getting involved in Tenterfield Creek Restoration Project
contact OzFish on 1800 431 308 or email info@ozfish.org.au.