August 8, 2023
The Goulburn River system has recently experienced some of the most extreme flooding in its lifetime. Flows in November 2022 peaked at one hundred and ninety times the base-flow level commonly seen in the river. Flooding in this area has been challenging for local communities, and the clean-up, repair and support efforts have been inspirational.
Flow Monitoring Evaluation and Research teams are researching how the environmental flows delivered prior to the floods have helped the river build resilience, which is the ability of the fish, vegetation and waterbugs to bounce back after extreme events.
Conditions have returned to more familiar pre-flooding flows at around 1000 mega litres per day.
The investigation team will be exploring several areas of the river’s health. This includes the fish ecology team using electrofishing and fyke nets at 10 locations to find out about changes in the numbers and type of fish in the river. Their Macroinvertebrate team will also be looking at the biomass (amount) and number of water bugs, yabbies and shrimp in the river. These teams, as well as several other specialist groups aim to improve the management of the Goulburn River for future generations.
In addition to the research being conducted, The Goulburn-Broken CMA has developed a live hydrograph. The hydrograph shows operational flows in an easy to read and up to date scale.
It is hoped these research methods can entice the enormous levels of Golden Perch seen in the Goulburn River back to the waterway in the near future.
