July 30, 2025
Photo of VRFish Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients: L-R Bob Pearce, Steven Relf, John Hotchin, Priya Cardinaletti, Geoff Cramer, Rob Loats
VRFish, the peak body for recreational fishing in Victoria, has celebrated its 30th anniversary by awarding eight lifetime achievement awards to volunteers for their highly regarded service to recreational fishing in Victoria.
VRFish Chair, Rob Loats, said “The highlight of celebrating VRFish’s 30th anniversary was
recognising our volunteers who have dedicated years to making fishing better in Victoria.”
The VRFish Lifetime Achievement Award is the highest honour which can be bestowed by the peak body for longstanding and valued service to recreational fishing in Victoria.
Christine Couzens MP, State Member for Geelong, presented eight Lifetime Achievement Awards in front of more than 80 delegates, who represent thousands of Victorian recreational fishers through their respective fishing clubs, associations and organisations.
The award recipients included Bob Pearce (Albert Park Yachting and Angling Club), Priya Cardinaletti (Scuba Divers Federation of Victoria), Robert Loats, Geoff Cramer (Ballarat and District Anglers Association), Steven Relf (Howqua Association), and John Hotchin (Association of Geelong and District Angling Clubs).
Pat Washington and Franz Grasser were recognised for their incredible service to recreational fishing posthumously.
“For 30 years, our volunteers have been the backbone of VRFish. Through their immense passion and drive, they have worked tirelessly to give back countless hours to the sport they love.”
VRFISH LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD RECIPIENTS 2025
The award recipient profiles can be read below so you can learn more about the recreational fishers who have been representing you through VRFish, many for the past 30 years.
PAT WASHINGTON
An avid fly fisher, Pat truly loved trout fishing and was a magnificent fly tier. Pat was a strong VRFish Chairman who is considered as being a true leader of VRFish. He was hardworking and well respected across all sectors.
He was passionate about offshore habitat after working as an oil rig diver. His first-hand knowledge from this experience prompted his idea to keep offshore discontinued oil rigs as habitat as he knew that marine fish and other life accumulated around these.
The biggest achievement under Pat’s time as Chairman was the introduction of the ‘All Waters Licence’ (Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence) and the subsequent Recreational Fishing Licence Trust Fund. This has enabled recreational fishers in Victoria to re-invest their license fees into projects that improve recreational fishing.
He was also involved in leading the way for a buyout of commercial scallop dredging licences in Port Phillip, closing commercial netting in Mallacoota, Lake Tyers, Shallow Inlet and Anderson’s Inlet to benefit recreational fishing. He was also heavily involved in negotiating the best possible outcome for recreational fishers with regard to the issue of Marine National Parks.
FRANZ GRASSER
For nearly 30 years, Franz was actively engaged with the recreational fishing community in the Patterson Lakes area.
Franz joined VRFish as a State Council Member in 2005 and was appointed to the VRFish Board in 2005 where he served until 2023.
He was an uncompromising advocate for recreational fishing and boating in Victoria and provided thousands of hours of voluntary service to the sport he loved.
BOB PEARCE
I have been a VRFish member since 1995. I joined VRFish because a lot of things were not right at the time, especially the issue of destructive commercial dredging in Port Phillip, that destroyed the scallop beds and shellfish reefs. This resulted in a dramatic reduction in fish catches in the bay, not to mention the environmental damage that it caused.
During my time as a VRFish member I have served on the Board for twelve years, including two years as VRFish Chairman. During this time, we have been able to achieve eradication of commercial netting in most estuaries in Victoria, the cessation of scallop/shellfish reef dredging and the closure of freshwater commercial fishing (although, there is still a commercial fishery for eels). I was directly involved in negotiations with the (then) Premier, Steve Bracks and Minister for Agriculture, Bob Cameron, to close commercial netting in Westernport.
For much of my time, I was an unaffiliated member of VRFish, but for some time now, I have been a member of Albert Park Yachting and Angling Club (APYAC) and, currently, I work on the club committee. Our club was the initiator of shellfish reef restoration in Port Phillip. The various projects that we have been involved with have all been extremely successful. Our club has raised over $600,00.00 to contribute to these projects. I have been very proud to have been involved with this outstanding achievement and I plan to be involved in future shellfish reef restoration projects. There have been similar projects in other states of Australia, but we have led the way. VRFish has been a vital partner in supporting us to deliver these projects for over ten years now.
I was pleased to have helped to finally get some government attention to getting improved boat launching facilities within Victoria quite a few years ago. This has led the way towards improved boat launching facilities right throughout Victoria. More needs to be done of course.
Recreational fishing has been very kind to me and my family since I started fishing with a handline on local piers and in the Yarra River in my younger days. Since then, I have fished all over Australia in fresh and salt water, both in boats and land based.
It has all been about ensuring, through VRFish, that we have good fishing, both now and well into the future.
Without a peak body for recreational fishing advocating strongly for improvements, many of the achievements to improve fishing would not have been possible.
PRIYA CARDINALETTI
I was involved in VRFish since its inception.
I was nominated through the SDFV to represent the interests of SCUBA Divers as we were active in catching crayfish and collecting shellfish. I initially worked with the first EO Margaret Roberts then with following EO’s
As a female and non-angler, I was initially overwhelmed as I thought my interests were misunderstood, but learned very quickly that we have many common issues. I have met some wonderful people such as Pat Washington, John Hotchin and Baden Hopgood who helped me understand the angler’s perspective.
Over the years I have learnt a lot about the importance of fishing both coastal and inland. I have seen how trout fisheries are managed etc. Over several stints on the board, I have enjoyed working with people such as Rob Loates who has been a great sounding board for scuba issues and hopefully, I helped with some angling issues.
I think that my contribution over this time has been that the group has understood the Scuba perspective and I have contributed to general fishing issues.
ROBERT LOATS
I joined VRFish as a regional fisher and delegate from Mid Northern Association of Angling Clubs in 1998. I became a Board member in March 2000 and am currently honoured to be the Chair of VRFish.
I originally joined VRFish to provide an important voice from regional Victoria from the Wimmera-Mallee area and promote the ever-increasing recreational fishing aspirations of regional fishers. Personally, at that time I had no aspirations to become the Chair of VRFish as my goal was to improve recreational fishing and access in Victoria and along the Murray River.
Some of the best achievements from issues raised have included:
- Led the buy-out of freshwater commercial fishers and having these twenty-eight water storages, lakes and wetlands returned to recreational fishing. Proposed a native fish restocking program with golden perch and yearling Murray Cod. VRFish achieved positive outcomes in 2001-2002 working in conjunction with Fisheries Victoria staff.
- In line with VRFish policy, led the support of banning opera house nets for fishing for yabbies, introducing yabby catch limits and having female yabbies with berries returned to the water.
- Assisted strongly in having setlines banned. This entailed a comprehensive effort to have setlines banned in the Murray River due to raising and receiving magnificent support from a Murray Cod Forum in Canberra. Also heavily involved with implementing Murray Cod slot limits, catch limits and having Rocklands Reservoir stocked with Murray Cod.
- Achieved strong fully documented support for twelve recreational lakes to receive high recreational water security from the enormous water saving generated by piping the open Wimmera-Mallee open channel system. Also support for returning defined allocations of environmental water back to the Glenelg and Wimmera Rivers.
- I was ecstatic to see a proposal I raised to see a statewide approach in repairing fish habit using large trees, branches and root balls during road constructions implemented by VicRoads as offsets for Woody fish habitat. I should note individuals often refer to me as “Woody” due to my insistence of renaming “Woody Debris” to Woody Habitat and give it a real fish habitat value.
GEOFF CRAMER
I have been a VRFish delegate for the Ballarat and District Anglers Association since 1995. I took part in several workshops at the Arthur Rylah Institute to develop the framework for our peak body prior to 1995.
I was elected to the inaugural Board in 1995 – our first Chairman, Nick Phizacklea, asked me to be part of his Board. I served on the Board right through until 2011. I was deputy Chair for Pat Washington and Bob Pearce. I took over as Chair when Bob resigned and spent almost 5 years as Chair.
On the VRFish Board, we successfully lobbied for and got the All-Waters Recreational Fishing Licence. Subsequently setting up the RFL Licence Trust Fund and Advisory Body and made sure VRFish maintained a couple of positions on that body. We put a lot of effort into getting more “unaffiliated” representatives as well as industry representatives. We managed to get recreational fishers represented on Regulation review groups and size and bag limit reviews.
The really big stuff that Rob Loats and I achieved was getting a slot limit of 55 – 75cm for Murray Cod and the banning of Opera House Nets for yabbying – having them replaced with open top nets.
The Ernst and Young report into the economic value of recreational fishing in Victoria 2009. This was a real game changer with the report showing that about 721,000 Victorians went fishing at least once a year and that recreational fishing created $825million of economic activity. More than AFL football at the time. This made politicians from all realms sit up and pay attention. Originally some bureaucrats and pollies were sceptical, however, they soon all got on board and funding etc got a bit easier. Eventually, Fisheries Victoria used the report to get additional funding and started their target 1 million (T1M) promotion.
During the millennium drought, VRFish lobbied Parks Victoria and the state government to get a secondary boat ramp constructed at Lake Purrumbete. Many anglers just grizzled but VRFish got the job done.
Recreational Fishers around the state all recorded details of their local boat ramps demonstrating the general poor conditions through the statewide boat ramp review. Minister for Ports and Racing Dr Dennis Napthine congratulated VRFish on the report and accepted it as a guiding document for future funding decisions.
More recent achievements include:
- Trial stocking of 50gm trout in several inland lakes in Victoria, specifically lakes containing large Redfin.
- Lobbying the VFA to have Cairn Curran and Eppalock open year round for Cod fishing. If it is good enough for Eildon and then Rocklands it is good enough for central Victorian Lakes.
STEVEN RELF
Steven Relf joined VRFish in 2000 as a state council representative for the Howqua Association.
I joined the Board of VRFish in 2010 and remain a Board member today. I was appointed to deputy chair in 2016 and chair of the finance, audit and risk committee that same year and remain in that role.
Through the Howqua Association, I have advocated for all year round fishing for Murray Cod in Lake Eildon, for which we gained state council support and eventually Fisheries agreement. The lake is now one of Victoria’s premier native fish impoundments.
I was appointed as the VRFish representative on the recreational fishing license trust advisory committee in 2016, providing advice on grants and projects to be approved for funding. After my initial term, I was reappointed and served another 3-year term. I also represented VRFish on the Victorian Fisheries Authority Roundtable.
I am appointed as the VRFish representative to the wild trout recovery program which I remain today.
I joined VRFish as I strongly believe the recreational anglers need a strong peak body to voice the views to both the Victorian Fisheries Authority and Government and to give back to the sport I’ve enjoyed for many years.
JOHN HOTCHIN
I attended the first meeting when discussions were happening to set up a peak body as instructed by Jeff Kennett. Mr. Jack Cations had just retired from his position in Government and was given the task of setting up a peak body to represent the recreational fishers of Victoria so the Ministers were not inundated with hundreds of fishers lobbying the Government and taking up valuable time. The body was set up so that just one organisation had this job and it all started back in 1995.
I sat on the VRFish Board from 1997 to 2021 and have been a strong advocate for making fishing access and infrastructure better in Victoria.
Some of my best achievements include:
- Access stairs from the Great Ocean Road down to the beach along the coast from Lorne to Apollo Bay along with fishing platforms. I was the first to install fish cleaning tables at boat ramps, with the first at Apollo Bay, before Fisheries took over.
- To date, I have been successful with over 107 grants that benefit recreational fishers across Victoria including grants from fisheries, local councils and federal government. I have also assisted local councils to find funding to improve recreational fishing.
- To improve access for recreational fishers, when the grants scheme came into existence following the introduction of the all-water licence, I saw the opportunity arise to improve infrastructure, so I went with it. And I’m not finished yet!
