Floods]]> Weirs]]> Fishing--Australia]]> Boats]]> Lagoons--Australia]]> Rainfall frequencies]]> Lure fishing]]>
Ron Bain was born in 1918 on a farm in Seymour. After share-farming for six years, he bought his own farm in Timboon. He returned to Seymour and purchased a shop with his family and after 12 months had packed up to travel around Australia in a caravan with his wife which continued for seven years. After this trip, Ron returned to Seymour and has resided in the area ever since.

During his life in Seymour, Ron has witnessed a lot of changes to the Goulburn River. He notes the reduced flow of the river as well as the eradication of floods, which in turn have negatively impacted the cod population and dried out the lagoons. He blames this largely on the installation of the Eildon Weir, and also on low precipitation.

Mentioned:

Sandworms, bardi grubs, trout, turtles, platypus, snakes, tiger snakes, red river gum trees, black wattle, rabbits.]]> CC-BY]]>
Bourke was once the end of the line for most of the paddlesteamers that made their way up the muddy Darling. They sometimes had to wait for months before the waters became navigable and when the rains didn’t come, the channel dried to a series of pools.

Since the coming of Europeans, the health of the river and its fish have degraded. The paddlesteamer trade, grazing, and irrigation, all changed the rivers. Weirs were constructed, reaches desnagged, water extracted, foreign animals and plants introduced and new ways to catch fish also had an impact. These changes mean there are now a lot less fish than there were. Before the turn of the twentieth century there are stories of catching great numbers of silver perch, Murray cod, catfish and yellowbelly - and no tales of carp.

These are the traditional lands of the Ngiyampaa, Murawari and Yuwalaraay peoples. They have seen great changes to the river and surrounding waterways where they fished and hunted the wetlands.

(Source: Frawley, J., Nichols, S., Goodall, H. and Baker, E. 2011. Darling ‐ Brewarrina to Bourke: Talking fish, making connections with the rivers of the Murray‐Darling Basin. Murray‐Darling Basin Authority, Canberra.)]]> Map image attribution: Murray-Darling Basin Authority, Talking Fish Project see details...]]> View or download from publisher...]]> http://geonode.research.uts.edu.au/layers/geonode%3Afrawley2012page178]]>