Home / Programs / River Resnagging and Fish Hotels / Murrumbidgee River, NSW / Murrumbidgee River 2022

12kms of Riverbank

Restored

35 large woody habitats

Installed

More than 150 hours

Volunteered

OzFish’s work in 2022 on the Murrumbidgee River is an excellent example of the Murray-Darling Healthy Rivers and NSW DPI Fisheries’ Recreational Fishing Trust’s Habitat Action Grant Program. Controlling of invasive trees, re-snagging the river, and restocking native fish is creating a healthy and thriving habitat, ensuring the area remains a popular fishing spot.

Controlling weeds, restoring habitat and reintroducing native fish 

The Murrumbidgee catchment is the fourth largest in the Murray-Darling Basin and consists of 6,749km of streams. It is a diverse ecosystem but unfortunately many native fish species are now no longer found in abundance or are even considered locally extinct, such as the Olive Perchlet. 

The OzFish volunteers set out to address this situation along a stretch of the river near Leeton. Over the 12-month project, they undertook more than 150 volunteer hours of work delivering significant benefits. 

Invasive weeds had displaced native flora and made the river incapable of supporting native fish habitat, as well as preventing access to the waterway for recreational anglers. 

The presence of willows among the weeds was also contributing to localised drought in the area as willows remove significant volumes of water from the soil. 

Community effort 

Controlling the invasive flora has enhanced the stability of the bank, improved the water quality, reduced the effects of localised drought and increased food sources for native fish in the river. All of these factors secure the long-term viability of native fish populations. 

This has been further supported by the volunteers placing 35 new snags and root balls in the river – these provide fish with shelter and protection from predators, ambush sites and feeding grounds.

Finally, the project team reintroduced a significant number of native fish to the Murrumbidgee River at Leeton. This will provide a much-needed kick start to fish populations in the river and play a key role in re-establishing thriving and sustainable numbers of native fish. 

During the course of the project, the OzFish team also delivered two community education workshops – providing information on how to become effective stewards of their local environment. 

LATEST NEWS

JUNE 2022 | Murrumbidgee Receives Snags

JUNE 2022 | Murrumbidgee Receives Snags

OzFish and their army of volunteer recreational anglers have again restored critical fish habitats in the Murrumbidgee River by dropping over 35 snags and root-balls into the water. The snags were dropped 10km north of Leeton, 10 of them were carefully positioned on the site of an existing resnagging project undertaken in March. The remaining 25 were installed 1km away, creating a longer stretch of complex habitat upstream. The aim is to improve the amount and complexity of habitat which will increase overall fish populations. Resnagging creates the right conditions to improve the health of native fish like golden and silver perch and Murray cod, encouraging their spawning and movement.

Find Out More

This project is funded by the Australian Government’s Murray–Darling Healthy Rivers Program and NSW DPI Fisheries’ Recreational Fishing Trust’s Habitat Action Grant Program. The Healthy Rivers Program is funding community-led grants for on-ground projects that improve the health and ecological condition of rivers and wetlands across the Basin, while supporting economic development and jobs. The project is also supported by BCF – Boating, Camping, Fishing and the local recreational angling community.