Water quality]]> Bushfires]]> Fish kills]]> Clearcutting]]> Fishes--Breeding]]> Pesticides]]> Fishing--Australia]]> Restoration ecology]]> Stream restoration]]> Lure fishing]]> Environmental conservation]]>
Adam and Ron talk about the conditions that fish find favourable to breed in. They recall the effect of the Black Saturday Fires (2009), the 'chocolate river' event, and the Yarrabulla mudslide (2006/2007). They also make reference to the 1939 black water event. They speak of the decline of the tobacco industry and the anecdotal belief that fish have rebounded as a consequence. Ron remembers his time serving on the Ovens River Management Board, renamed Northeast Waterways and later the Northeast Catchment Management Authority. He talks about environmental politics and his experience advocating for the restoration of fish habitat and biodiversity. Adam talks about his involvement with the Northeast Catchment Management Authority and their efforts to replant native species and reintroduce snags.

They both talk about fishing lures, setlines, springers and keeper nets. They mention snakes, competitive fishing, snorkeling, and discuss what they like about fishing.

Mention of sugar gliders, platypus, phascogale, eastern water rats, bandicoots, tiger snakes, red belly black snakes, brown snakes, black snakes.

Mention of Arthur Rylah institute, Ovens River Improvement Trust, Ovens River Management Board, Northeast Waterways, Northeast Catchment Management Authority, Mulwala Classic Invitational, Cod Opening Classic, Myrtleford Fishing Club]]>
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Waka Waka / Wakka Wakka people]]> Mandandanji people]]> Fishes--Identification]]> Native plants]]> Land custodianship]]> Connection to Country]]> Dreaming (Spiritual)]]> Kitchen-middens--Australia]]> Water quality]]> Erosion]]> Farming]]> Deforestation]]> Aboriginal fish traps]]> Places of significance]]> Land degradation]]> Water allocations]]> Water conservation]]> Cotton]]> Water pollution]]> Salinization]]> River rehabilitation]]> Aboriginal history]]> Farming]]> Droughts]]> Introduced fishes]]> Water wells]]> Mandandanji (Australian people)]]> Sacred sites]]> Activism]]>
Robert Lacey is an Indigenous man who has resided in the St George area in southern Queensland most his life. His people are the traditional owners of the land: his mother is a Mandandanji woman, while his father is a Waka Waka man.

Robert discusses the connection he has with the land and the river, he expresses the honour he feels in being trusted to take care of Country. He discusses the history of the river and its declining health; commercial use of the river; and the work he personally does on recording the sites of cultural significance and heritage sites finding over 100 in just a few years. He says that the river is a source of peace, tranquility, food, leisure - the life blood of the land.

Robert also mentions the Great Artesian Basin Sustainability Initiative (GABSI) and his elation at the 1967 Australian Referendum and what it meant for Aboriginal people, and also the political activism by his family.]]>
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