Be free: Victorian Fishing Minister Melissa Horne pours some golden perch fingerlings into the Goulburn (Kaiela) River with Victorian Fisheries Authority worker Jarryd McGowan.
They were born in breeding ponds, raised by humans and hand delivered to the river by a government minister while cameras clicked and onlookers clapped.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
The 10,000 golden perch fingerlings released into the Goulburn (Kaiela) River on February 16 are the first of their kind — and they’ve got a lot of waterway to fill.
The fingerlings are the first fish to be released by the Arcadia native fish hatchery, established by the Victorian Fisheries Authority last year on an old dairy farm south of Shepparton.
Little fishies: Thanks to the pipe and tank system the fish are never touched or netted until the very end of their growth cycle, increasing their survival rate.
Since the land was purchased, earthworks have created 32 turkey nest dams and engineers have set up a network of gravity-fed pipes allowing workers to drain fish out of ponds and into plastic transport tubs while collecting and reusing the pond water.
Farm to fish: The old dairy shed is now full of holding tanks containing fingerlings waiting to be released and quarantining wild-caught breeding stock (one adult cod to a tank, otherwise they fight). The VFA filled the dairy’s sunken walkway with concrete.
Photo by
Daneka Hill
Victorian Fisheries Authority project manager Anthony Foster said having a fully-functioning local hatchery opened the VFA to a world of options.
“Now that we’re growing our own we don’t just have to buy at a certain age,” Mr Foster said.
“Previously we were buying 90 per cent of our native fish from NSW, and three of those hatcheries are now owned by Chinese interests.”
Mr Foster said there had been a few instances of mystery drones flying over the developing hatchery, which is growing Murray cod and golden perch.
The iLog: An artificial log used by the hatchery in its Murray cod breeding ponds. VFA project manager Anthony Foster explains how the cod lay their eggs on the mesh, allowing the team to extract the mesh (and eggs) with minimal fuss.
Photo by
Daneka Hill
Victorian Fishing Minister Melissa Horne was on hand to release the first of the 10,000 golden perch fingerlings.
“Seeing the first fish stocked locally into the Goulburn River less than 12 months after the first sod was turned at Arcadia signals a strong future for fishing in Victoria,” Ms Horne said.
Wytasie Walker has been completing a fisheries course at GOTAFE and working at the Arcadia site. The 19-year-old said she’d seen the evolution of the hatchery.
“I’ve seen it being made and now here it is,” Miss Walker said.
“It’s important to bring native fish back because a couple of years ago you couldn’t catch anything. It’s been ages to catch good fish and now they’ll start popping up, I strongly believe that.”
Behold: They might not look like much, but these fingerlings represent a turn in the health of the Goulburn Valley’s waterways.
Photo by
Daneka Hill
Miss Walker is part of the Burnanga Indigenous Fishing Club run by her father Corey Walker in Shepparton.
“My dad has his fishing club and I wanted to get some training behind that to really bring some knowledge into the club,” she said.
“We’re just waiting to launch the club, we had to hold off launching because of COVID so we’re looking at starting around the end of this year. We should get a couple of fish comps coming through and members.”
When the hatchery is at full capacity it will produce 1.6 million native fish annually for statewide stocking programs, plus there will be a visitor centre to attract tourists and fish lovers.
32°C