Fish Habitat A Major Focus For The Tweed River in 2021!

The Tweed River’s fish are in for a housing boom as a large number of projects have coincided to see fish habitat become a major component of Tweed Shire Councils construction program in 2021. 

Tweed Shire Councils Waterways Program has been active in the field of fish habitat rehabilitation for many years, delivering numerous projects in the area that improve water quality and provide benefits to fish habitat.   

“We’ve been supporting private land holders since 2006 and over the last 5 years, 90 landowners have undertaken a range of projects across 40km of waterways through Councils River Health Grants.” Says Councils Waterways Program Leader, Tom Alletson.  

“Over 1 million dollars of Council funding has been spent on waterway rehabilitation, plus an estimated $400,000 in-kind contribution from landowners.  This work has included 20km of fencing and 50ha of riparian vegetation management. “ 

Councils philosophy is to re-establish native bankside vegetation so that its role in stabilising soils, filtering pollutants, shading and cooling water and sheltering fish is maximised. 

In 2018 the Council were awarded with a NSW Local Government excellence in Environment Award for their work stabilising devastating erosion in the Oxley River at Euenglla.  The Oxley River project used approximately 200 eucalypt logs salvaged from highway clearing works near Grafton to prevent 1000’s of cubic metres of soil from being washed off banks and into the waterways.   

“All these projects focus on water quality and restoring aquatic habitat”, Says Tom.   

“Knowing that it enhances fish recruitment and survival, and also benefits animals such as platypus and Osprey makes it feel really worthwhile.” 

In 2020 – 2021, the work continues, with the Council delivering a significant number of additional fish habitat rehabilitation projects, nearly all of which have benefited greatly from Council’s partnership with OzFish. 

In the upper Tweed estuary, near Dunbible Creek, 400 metres of eroding river bank have been stabilised and revegetated, with $100,000 from the NSW Environmental trust, and $20,000 contributed by OzFish for re-planting and weed control.  This project saw installation of 5 fish hotels as well as incorporation of some large bank-side snags. 

Interest in the project from nearby land owners will hopefully see an expansion of this type of work in the upper Tweed estuary between Murwillumbah and the Bray Park Weir, which will benefit local bass populations and opportunities for recreational angling.   

“Our partnership with OzFish Unlimited has been a great asset to this project,” says Tom.  

“Local fishers have said that the work is already benefiting the Bass population, which is one of our premier native sportfish, says Tom. 

Moving downstream, Council and OzFish have once again combined to win a grant through the Australian Government’s Fish Habitat Restoration Program to stabilise and revegetate 550m of degraded Tweed River bank near Myall creek just outside Murwillumbah. 

This will be the second project in this reach of the river that has included installation of large logs and another 1000 trees, as well as cattle exclusion fencing.  Once the habitat features have been added to the intertidal area, it is hoped that before and after monitoring using baited underwater video will provide evidence of increased fish utilisation of the site.   

For many years, a major challenge for Council in its management of the Tweed estuary has been the issue of riverbank erosion near roads.  Monitoring over the years has identified up to 6km of severe and existing bank erosion located within 5m of important roads.  In 2019 Council was awarded a Flagship Fish Habitat Action Grant from NSW DPI Fisheries, and used this money to accurately map and prioritise bank slips, and develop stabilisation designs that would maximise fish habitat outcomes in all locations.   

Come 2021, the planning work is complete, and an additional $800,000 has been allocated to the construction phase of this project, scheduled for November 2021.   

Three high risk and severely eroded sites with a total length of 350m adjacent to the Tweed Valley Way will be stabilised and will combine the essential protection of road infrastructure with concrete artificial reef units and features to enhance mangrove growth. 

These road protection works come in addition to four similar sites completed in 2020 along Tumbulgum road at Tygalgah, and on Riverside Drive at Tumbulgum.  All of these sites provided fish habitat benefits through the incorporation of fillets to encourage mangrove colonisation and large hardwood root balls to provide fish attracting structure. 

Tweed Councils emphasis on erosion stabilisation to enhance fish habitat is a direct reflection of the strong priority that these issues were given during community consultation to prepare a management plan for the Tweed River. Council’s partnership with OzFish represents a desire to engage with all fishers to promote the benefits of good catchment management, and rehabilitation of our creek and river bank environments. 

There are plenty of upcoming events where keen local fishers can ‘test the waters’, including the Tweed River Chapter Meeting and the Woodland Valley Farm Planting Day. 

Tweed’s fishers can contact OzFish’s Northern NSW Officer, Demara Gates on 0468 350 852, call the hotline 1800 431 308 or email info@ozfish.org.au to see how they can support and get involved in this work.