Waranga Shores residents Grant Lindsay (left) and Ron Williams on the edge of Lake Waranga, where the new fish habitat will be created.
Residents living on the shores of Waranga Basin have been surprised to discover a fish habitat area will be created a few hundred metres from their properties within the next month.
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The discovery has raised a number of issues for the residents, who were not consulted about the project before contracts were drawn up and the project approved.
Construction, expected to start on the $100,000 project in the first week of October, will include concrete, timber logs, brush piles and woody debris.
The residents of the subdivision, off the Tatura-Rushworth Rd on the south edge of the lake, wanted to know why the location was chosen and why they were not contacted before the project was funded and approved.
Ron Williams, who lives a stone’s throw from the lake, said the residents help to maintain the foreshore and tracks, filling in pot-holes and collecting rubbish in their own bins.
He wonders who will accept responsibility for maintaining the access track along Murray Rd if the area becomes more popular with fishers.
Residents interviewed by Country News were not against the project, but wanted to know why their part of the lake was chosen and why they were not brought into the engagement conversation.
Some of the residents have licences to draw water from the reservoir through poly pipes on the lake bed.
“We get very little support from the [Campaspe] shire out here,” Mr Williams said.
“If they are going to promote the area for fishing and get more people here, then they will need to provide rubbish bins and services.”
Resident Adam Woodward said he was not against the project, but the developers should have taken the residents’ views into consideration.
“It should be moved to an area more suitable,” Mr Woodward said.
He questioned the design of the project when he had seen the water storage drawn down as low as 20 per cent of capacity.
“All of the dead trees to be placed there would be exposed.
“Goulburn-Murray Water manage it as a storage, not a recreational lake.”
Residents raised their concerns with the project’s consultant and with G-MW, and a meeting held last week addressed some of their issues.
Waranga Basin where the new fish habitat will be created.
Goulburn Valley Association of Angling Clubs chair Roland Huber said a community engagement process had been conducted as part of the project.
He said the project came about because fish were being stocked in waterways and there was a concern that there wasn’t sufficient habitat to protect them.
He believed their consultant was engaging with the residents in recent weeks to try to address their concerns.
The reasons for the choice of the site related to water depth, road access and proximity to the nearby Tatura-Rushworth Rd.
Mr Huber said the varying levels of the lake would not threaten the project, as it replicated the natural environment in rivers and waterways.
G-MW storage operations south manager Paul Beard said G-MW, along with the project’s principal consultant, met with landholders and, based on their feedback, has made minor amendments to where the habitat is located.
“A number of factors influenced the selection of the location of the site, including fish behaviour, impacts to users of the basin, existing infrastructure such as pipes used to draw water from the basin, and the varying water levels of the basin,” Mr Beard said.
“Even when the basin is near capacity, the habitat will be predominantly located within the five-knot speed limit area, which is within 200m of the shoreline.
“When the water levels drop, parts of the fish habitat will be outside of the water, but much of it will still be able to be used by the fish.
“The fish habitat will also be clearly marked with isolated danger buoys at all times.”
G-MW has confirmed the storage will continue to be operated for water entitlement holders and any releases and draw-downs will be determined by irrigation demands.
When Waranga Basin is at full supply level, some parts of the fish habitat will be outside the 5-knot zone, however, these parts of the fish habitat will be well beneath the surface and not cause any risk to boaters.
The fish habitat is being established in a location that is owned and managed by G-MW. The Waranga Basin foreshore is also Crown land that is managed by G-MW.
No rubbish services are available in G-MW-managed recreation and foreshore areas, so visitors are obliged to carry out rubbish they bring in with them.
Murray Rd is owned by Campaspe Shire Council.
Waranga Basin has a capacity of 432,360 megalitres and is a popular fishing spot for redfin, and fishing organisations hope the new habitat will create a good environment for golden perch.
The project is funded by money collected from fishing licences.
The water stored in Waranga Basin supplies the Central Goulburn, Rochester and Pyramid-Boort irrigation districts across northern Victoria.
Murray Rd is more of a track. Residents are concerned the track won’t cope with the increase in traffic caused by a higher interest in fishing.
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