Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2019L00106:body:0:p28
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2019L00106
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 74915–77751

2011–2014 and recruitment has been detected from these stocked individuals (Pearce 2013; Pearce et al., 2017).
For the Murrumbidgee River catchment, historical research indicates that for the majority of the catchment the Macquarie perch declined in abundance between the 1930s–1960s and by the 1980s had become rare in many parts of the catchment (Trueman 2011). Initially, the species flourished in Lake Burrinjuck after its construction in the early-1900s until at least the 1950s (Trueman 2011), and indications are that it remained common in the lake until the 1980s, as the species was reported as abundant there in 1986 (Burchmore et al., 1988). and then declined to the point that by the 1970s it could only be caught during spawning migrations into upstream areas and by the 1980s it was considered rare (Trueman 2011). The species declined sharply in the Murrumbidgee River upstream from Lake Burrinjuck in the Australian Capital Territory during the 1980s (Lintermans 2002). A relict population of the species continues to remain strong in the Cotter Reservoir on the Cotter River in the Australian Capital Territory (Lintermans 2012; Farrington et al., 2014). The species is now considered extinct in the Queanbeyan River upstream of Googong Reservoir (the Queanbeyan River is a tributary of the Molonglo River, which in turn is a tributary of the upper Murrumbidgee River) (Lintermans pers. comm., 2015). A translocated self-sustaining population had persisted in the Queanbeyan River and had shown signs of recruitment until the early 2000s but declined thereafter (Lintermans 2013a). The estimate of Macquarie perch abundance at the time of European settlement for the Murrumbidgee River catchment were rated as common from the lowland zone and abundant from the slopes, upland and montane zones (Trueman 2011).
SRA1 and 2 recorded three and 10 Macquarie perch individuals in surveys at 28 sites across the Murrumbidgee River catchment both in 2007 and 2008 respectively (Davies et al., 2008; 2012). SRA rarity scores for the species in the catchment were: rare in the lowland zone; occassional in the slopes zone, and; common in the upland and montane zones (MDBA 2017).
For the Upper Murray River catchment, historical research indicates that the Macquarie perch declined in abundance from the time of World War I to the 1930s (Trueman 2011). The species was abundant in the area near Khancoban in New South Wales until the 1930s when they became sparse (Harris et al., 2006; Trueman 2011). The species is likely to have disappeared from the upper Cudgewa Creek catchment in Victoria, which flows into the Upper Murray River, after about 1920 (Trueman 2011). This trend appears to be consistent with records further downstream, within the Murray River and creeks near Burroweye and Towong, where recordings of Macquarie