Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2019L00106:body:0:p22
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2019L00106
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 59040–62087

Murray-Darling Basin and to the west of the its natural, historical distribution, Macquarie perch were translocated into the Wimmera River catchment and into the Loddon River catchment, which likely represented the most western catchment containing natural populations at the time of European settlement, but these populations were likely supplemented with translocated Macquarie perch as early as 1873 (Trueman 2011). Fish sourced from the Goulburn River were translocated into the Bet Bet Creek, Tullaroop Creek and Lake Daylesford in the Loddon River catchment in the 1930s (Cadwallader 1981). Fish sourced mainly from the Goulburn River were also translocated into waterways within the Wimmera River catchment between about 1910–1930s (Cadwallader 1981). The species is considered extirpated from the Wimmera River catchment (Lintermans 2007; Vic DELWP pers. comm., 2015). Recent stockings have occurred in Expedition Pass Reservoir, which is part of the Loddon River catchment (see below in '5.4 Stocked populations').
Recently, there has been translocation of sub-adult individuals from the Lake Dartmouth population in the Mitta Mitta River catchment to the middle reaches of the Ovens River in addition to stocked juveniles/fingerlings (see below in '5.4 Stocked populations') with the aim of establishing a range of age and developmental stages that are similar to those which exist in natural populations (Vic DEPI 2014a). Recent surveys have demonstrated that both translocated and stocked fish are surviving with some evidence of natural recruitment (Vic DELWP unpub. data, cited in ARI pers. comm., 2017). There have also been individuals translocated from Lake Dartmouth to Lake William Hovell, a dammed reservoir on the King River (Ovens River catchment) in Victoria (Vic DEDJTR 2015a).

    5.4 Stocked populations

Until recently, most hatchery programs for Macquarie perch have relied on capturing spawning-run fish from the wild (NSW DPI 2010) and inducing individuals to spawn through the injection of artificial hormones to collect the eggs and sperm. While the species can live in impoundments, as a truly riverine species it requires fast-flowing water with gravel-cobble substrates to breed (Cadwallader & Rogan 1977; Appleford et al., 1998; Lintermans 2007; 2013).
The requirement for flowing water conditions to stimulate breeding in Macquarie perch is supported by the many failures of impoundment populations to be self-sustaining. Research on the now extinct Queanbeyan River population of the species found evidence of recruitment until 2001 but not thereafter, and this may have been the effect of the millennium drought (between 1997–2010) (Lintermans 2013a). The millennium drought would have reduced the frequency of available fast-flowing conditions in the waterway available to the species, and also decreased opportunities for fish to move between habitats in the river, and this could explain the persistent breeding failure since 2001 (Lintermans 2013a).
There have been a number of breeding investigations