Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2019L00106:body:0:p30
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2019L00106
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 80015–82978

between Wentworth eastwards to the Wakool River confluence; common between the Wakool River confluence eastwards to Echuca (Campaspe River confluence); abundant between Echuca eastwards to Albury-Wodonga in these lowland zones of the Murray River (Trueman 2011). SRA1 and 2 recorded no Macquarie perch in surveys at 21 sites across the Central Murray River catchment both in 2005 and 2008 (Davies et al., 2008; 2012). SRA rarity scores for the species in the catchment were: rare in the lower zone (Wentworth eastwards to Murrumbidgee River confluence); occasional in the middle zone (Murrumbidgee River confluence eastwards to Hume Dam), and; rare in the Edwards-Wakool anabranch zone (MDBA 2017). Long term fish monitoring in the Murray River between Yarrawonga and Cobram between 1999–2017 has not detected the species in this reach (Lyon et al., 2014; ARI unpub. data, cited in ARI pers. comm., 2017).
For eastern Macquarie perch, which occurred in the Hawkesbury-Nepean, Georges and Shoalhaven catchments at the time of European settlement and for some time afterwards (Faulks et al., 2010; 2011; Pavlova et al., 2017a; 2017b), the species is still present in fragmented populations in the upper Hawkesbury-Nepean catchment, in tributaries of Lake Burragorang (the lake formed by Warragamba Dam)  and the Warragamba River and tributaries of the Nepean River (Knight 2010) and tributaries of the Colo River, which flows into the Hawkesbury River (Faulks et al., 2011). The natural population in the Shoalhaven River catchment declined rapidly during the late-1990s, genetic analysis of the an individual captured in the Kangaroo River was homozygous at 90 per cent of loci, which suggests that loss of genetic variation and individual inbreeding accompanied extinction of the endemic Shoalhaven lineage (Pavlova et al., 2017a). However, a translocated population remains in the Shoalhaven catchment in the Mongarlowe River derived from individuals from the Murray-Darling Basin (Faulks et al., 2010; 2011). The Mongarlowe River population has declined dramatically since it was first studied in the 1970s (Bishop 1979; Lintermans 2008). A translocated population persists in Cataract Reservoir near Bulli Tops on the Cataract River, a tributary of the upper Nepean River. This population is of Murray-Darling Basin origin and it appears that individuals from this Reservoir population have dispersed downstream where some interbreeding with the naturally occurring Hawkesbury-Nepean lineage is evident (Faulks et al., 2011; Pavlova et al., 2017a). There is no evidence of interbreeding within Cataract Reservoir (Pavlova et al., 2017a).
Victoria
For the Mitta Mitta River catchment, historical research indicates that for the majority of the catchment, Macquarie perch declined in abundance between in the 1930s and by the end of the World War II the species was rare in the catchment above the Larsens Creek confluence (before Lake Dartmouth was made) and by