Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2019L00106:body:0:p16
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2019L00106
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Character Range: 42757–45817

most abundant prey in the stomachs of juvenile Macquarie perch reared in fertilised earthen aquaculture ponds (Ingram & De Silva 2007).
The composition of diet for Macquarie perch in impoundments fluctuates depending on water level, and feeding activity is known to increase in times of flooding when fresh ground is made available (McKeown 1934; Cadwallader & Douglas 1986; Battaglene 1988). Macquarie perch have been found to feed on terrestrial invertebrates, such as arthropods and annelids, when the water levels of Lake Dartmouth rose rapidly over areas which had previously not been inundated (Cadwallader & Douglas 1986). There has been little evidence of feeding on terrestrial items from other studies focussing on riverine populations (Cadwallader & Rogan 1977; Cadwallader & Eden 1979; Lintermans 2006b).
The abovementioned study of the Lake Dartmouth population found that there was no obvious relationship between size of Macquarie perch and size of food items (Cadwallader & Douglas 1986). This is in contradiction to riverine populations of the species in the Canberra region, where ontogenetic changes in diet have been observed: as individuals mature, the importance of decapods increases and the importance of dipterans (true flies) decreases (Lintermans 2006b). Macquarie perch prey in riverine populations in the Canberra region is dominated by the shrimp (Paratya australiensis) and freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium australiense) (Lintermans 2006b).

5 Distribution and Populations
Figure 3: Current and historical distribution of Macquarie perch in south-eastern Australia

    5.1 Historical distribution

The natural, historical geographical distribution of the Macquarie perch include all major river systems in the southeastern part of the Murray-Darling Basin in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria and the two eastern draining systems, the Hawkesbury-Nepean and the Shoalhaven, in southeasternNew South Wales (Figure 3). Within the Murray-Darling Basin, the species once ranged from the Macquarie River catchment in New South Wales in the north, where the type specimen was caught, southwards and then west in Victoria to the Loddon River catchment in central Victoria in the south (Cadwallader 1981; Faulks et al., 2010; Trueman 2011). In between these two catchments, the species was present in the Lachlan, Murrumbidgee, Murray, Mitta Mitta, Kiewa, Ovens, Goulburn-Broken and Campaspe river catchments (Cadwallader 1981). In eastern draining river catchments in New South Wales, the species was naturally found from the Hawkesbury-Nepean in the north, south to the Shoalhaven river catchment, including the Georges River catchment which occurs between these two (Faulks et al., 2010). In South Australia, it was likely that the species was scarce in the lower Murray River (Trueman 2011).
The population in the Queanbeyan River and in Googong Reservoir (its dam across the Queanbeyan River completed in 1979) is considered to be effectively extinct (Lintermans pers. comm., 2015). Upstream of Googong