Home / Projects / River Resnagging and Fish Hotels / Curdies River, VIC

The Curdies  

The Curdies River and estuary is a destination waterway for angling species such as Black Bream and Estuary Perch in south-west Victoria. Being an intermittent estuary, the mouth where the estuary meets the ocean at Peterborough on the Great Ocean Road, can be closed to the ocean by sand build-up for long periods of time.  

Previous studies have identified a significant need for instream woody habitat along large stretches of the Curdies and we’re excited to be working in partnership with the Corangamite Catchment Management Authority, VRFish Fish Care and other angler groups to improve this important habitat throughout approximately 17km reach of the river, upstream of Curdievale to the Curdies Inlet in Peterborough. 

Throughout the project, we will be running engagement and education events to provide project updates, help the community better understand the benefits of shellfish restoration, and highlight how you can get involved. You can find out about our upcoming activities on the OzFish events page.

OzFish Events

Getting a buzz for monitoring

Before habitat works get underway, Austral Research and Consulting conduct fish surveys of the river by Electrofishing. These surveys help us to get a better understanding of the local ” fishy” river residents and provide baseline data for monitoring restoration efforts, it involves an electrical current being delivered through the water, which temporarily stuns the fish and enables them to be collected, measured, and returned to the water safely. Additional surveys are then done after the habitat installations, to evaluate the benefits of the works.  

Snags and woody debris are vital fish habitat. Check out our Unpack Habitat on re-snagging to understand more about why they are important to fish

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Fish hotels

The Curdies Estuary Habitat Restoration Project will improve riverine and estuarine habitat for native fish, including angling species such as Black Bream and Estuary Perch. They will do so by installing snags or ‘fish hotels’ (as recreational fishers commonly call them).

The new fish hotels will also provide habitat for threatened Australian Grayling and other aquatic wildlife, including frogs, platypus, water rats, insects and birds.

Why are snags important?

Snags are important for all aquatic life in our river systems, especially for native fish. Snags provide critical breeding sites, shelter and protection from predators, a place to rest, ambush sites and feeding grounds for fish that like to eat algae and macro-invertebrates that accumulate on woody debris. Snags also play an important role in the physical shaping of Australian rivers, creating variability in depth and flow which our native fish rely on.

LATEST NEWS

21 JUNE 2021 | New Life For The Barwon River And Curdies Estuary

21 JUNE 2021 | New Life For The Barwon River And Curdies Estuary

Native fish habitat will breathe new life into the Barwon River and Curdies Estuary thanks to two new projects under the Australian Government’s ‘Fisheries Habitat Restoration Program’. The Barwon River and Curdies Estuary Habitat Restoration Projects will improve riverine and estuarine habitat for native fish, including angling species such as Black Bream and Estuary Perch. They will do so by installing snags or ‘fish hotels’ (as recreational fishers commonly call them) in both waterways. The new fish hotels will also provide habitat for threatened Australian Grayling and other aquatic wildlife, including frogs, platypus, water rats, insects and birds.

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21 JUNE 2021 | Get Shocked With Electrofishing On The Curdies

21 JUNE 2021 | Get Shocked With Electrofishing On The Curdies

Fishing conservation charity, OzFish Unlimited, and the Corangamite Catchment Management Authority invites interested community members to attend an Electrofishing demonstration at the Curdievale boat ramp on Sunday, 27th of June, at 1pm. The electrofishing survey will help to provide baseline data for the ‘Curdies River Fish Habitat Restoration Project’ which seeks to put 30 wooden structures, referred to as “Fish Hotels” in the river, providing shelter and food for local fish species. The project will improve the fishery – most notably Black Bream and Estuary Perch, improving outcomes for the environment and recreational fishers on the Curdies River and estuary. The electrofishing survey will monitor 10 kilometres of the river north and south of Curdievale to see what fish species are present. This data will be compared with a second survey to be completed in a few years’ time to measure the benefits of the fish habitat works.

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The project is supported by the Corangamite Catchment Management Authority through funding from the Australian Governments’ Fisheries Habitat Restoration Program.