Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2019L00106:body:0:p33
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2019L00106
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 87702–90490

abundances in the Buffalo River upstream of Lake Buffalo up until 2011, but there have been no surveys since (ARI pers. comm., 2017).
For the Goulburn-Broken river catchments, historical research indicates that, for the majority of this major river system, Macquarie perch had declined during the 1920s and had disappeared from most of the Goulburn-Broken river catchments by the 1950s (Trueman 2011). There were a few exceptions though, such as the Yea River King Parrot, Hughes and Seven creeks, in the Goulburn River catchment, and the lower Broken River near Benalla and Nalinga, where populations remained at least until the 1970s. A relict population has remained in the lower reaches of King Parrot Creek downstream of Flowerdale, but the species had disappeared from its upper reaches in the early 1900s, this population having been the source for the 1857 translocation to the Yarra River catchment (Wilson 1857; Trueman 2011). In Lake Eildon, which was initially filled by the construction of the Eildon Weir on the Goulburn River in 1929 and then expanded in 1956, the Macquarie perch population initially flourished but subsequently declined and went extinct by the late-1960s (Cadwallader & Rogan 1977; Trueman 2011). After the construction of Lake Nillahcootie on the upper Broken River in 1967, a population of Macquarie perch has continued to persist and the species was recorded in low abundance in 2016 above and below the lake (ARI unpub. data, cited in ARI pers. comm., 2017). Populations in Ryan and Holland's Creeks declined until the 1960s and became scarce (Trueman 2011). The estimate of Macquarie perch abundance at the time of European settlement for the Goulburn-Broken river catchments were rated as: abundant from the lowland and slopes zones; common in the upland zone, and; rare from the montane zone (Trueman 2011). Self-sustaining populations still exist in Holland's Creek near the township of Tatong in the Broken River catchment and in the lower to middle reaches of Hughes Creek, upstream of the township of Avenel, in the Goulburn River catchment (ARI 2007; Raymond et al., 2008).
SRA1 and 2 recorded zero and one Macquarie perch individual in surveys at 19 and 18 sites across the Broken River catchment both in 2004 and 2007 respectively (Davies et al., 2008; 2012). The one caught in 2007 surveys was recorded within the merged slopes/upland/montane zone (Davies et al., 2012). SRA rarity scores for the species in the Broken River catchment were: occasional in the lowland zone, and; occasional in the merged slopes/upland/montane zone (MDBA 2017). SRA1 and 2 recorded two and one Macquarie perch individuals at 21 sites across the Goulburn River catchment in 2005 and 2008 respectively (Davies et al., 2008; 2012). The two recorded in 2004 were