HRD

They are amazing biofilters, playing a crucial role in keeping rivers healthy. An abundant food source for First Nations Peoples, Freshwater Mussels are a critically important part of the web of life.

Once, they were second only to fish as the dominate life by weight in inland rivers.

The severe drought of 2017-2020, exacerbated the problems caused by decades of over extraction and mis-mangement of water in the Murray Darling Basin and the unthinkable happened – many rivers dried up completely. The Darling-Baaka was a series of small, green disconnected pools from Bourke to the Murray. The Macquarie-Wambuul was cut of at Warren, completely drying out the Macquarie Marshes and the Lower Macquaire.

Rightfully, the fish kills that resulted shocked and horrified the community. But the loss of an estimated 2.9 million Freshwater Mussels is a lesser known ecological catastrophe.

This post includes an article that appeared in The Conversation, and lower down a published study of the habitat and flow requirements of the Freshwater Mussels.

The internationally significant Macquarie Marshes is the only place in the northern Basin where remains of all three species of Freshwater Mussels that live in the basin were found. It is home to the biggest and oldest Freshwater Mussel remains that were found in the study, with one specimen measured at 137.2mm.

The presence of large, old Freshwater Mussels in places like the mid Darling-Baaka Rivers and the Macquarie Marshes proves that the natural wetting and drying patterns of these systems never included completely drying out, like they did in 2017-2020.

---

The Conversation – Academic rigour, journalistic flair

Professor Alan Lymbery – Jan 12th 2022

Freshwater mussels are dying suddenly and in the thousands, with each mass death event bringing these endangered molluscs closer to extinction. Tragically, these events rarely get noticed.

Read the full article here

---

Habitat and flow requirements of freshwater mussels in the northern Murray-Darling Basin.

Report to the Commonwealth Environmental Water Office
November 2020

Fran Sheldon and Nicole McCasker
Co-authors: Michelle Hobbs, Paul Humphries, Hugh Jones, Michael Klunzinger and Mark Kennard

Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University

Institute of Land, Water and Society, Charles Sturt University

The authors respectfully acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands and waters of the Murray-Darling Basin, particularly those whose lands we walked on in this study, across the Darling, Barwon, Macquarie, Namoi, Gwydir and MacIntyre rivers. We acknowledge that Aboriginal peoples have cared for the rivers for millennia, and pay our respects to the Elders, past and present.

Executive Summary
Freshwater mussels are considered ecosystem engineers of rivers; they modify substrates through burrowing, mediate water quality through filtration, provide food and habitat for other organisms and play a significant role in the biogeochemical cycling of nutrients and are also seriously threatened globally. The rivers of the northern Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) are home to three species of freshwater mussel – the large ‘river mussels’ Alathyria jacksoni and Alathyria condola and the smaller ‘floodplain/billabong mussel’ Velesunio ambiguus. As sedentary, long-lived organisms, obtaining an understanding of the habitat requirements of resident freshwater mussels will provide insights into the natural hydrology of Australia’s inland rivers, and the potential role healthy populations of freshwater mussels could play in influencing water quality through biofiltration. This project was conceived in response to the extensive drought in the northern Murray-Darling Basin between 2017 and early 2020 and the reports of extensive mussel mortality. The specific aims were to review existing knowledge and identify knowledge gaps in relation to environmental water requirements, life history, physiological tolerances and habitat requirements and cultural significance of freshwater mussels in the Murray-Darling Basin, improve baseline understanding of distribution and structure of freshwater mussels in the Northern Basin and make recommendations for land and water management to protect freshwater mussel populations. This was achieved through a predictive analysis of mussel distribution, and analysis of the hydrological conditions during the drying event and a field survey to establish the extent of mussel mortality at sites across the northern Murray-Darling Basin……….

……… The combination of rapid and quantitative surveys used in this study suggest that the loss of mussel populations across the northern Murray-Darling Basin resulting from the drying conditions of 2017- 2019 is significant and widespread. This is a cause for concern given the longevity of mussel individuals and the poor evidence of widespread recent recruitment. Based on our analyses we make the following five (5) broad recommendations:

• Recommendation 1: that further research needs to be undertaken to understand the biology of freshwater mussels in the northern Murray-Darling Basin, including their reproduction, recruitment, growth patterns and diets, as well as their role in the ecosystem of the northern Murray-Darling Basin Rivers – not least because, besides fish, they were historically the dominant animal by weight in these rivers.
• Recommendation 2: that a focus be made on monitoring freshwater mussel recovery in both the short- and long-term. This should include an understanding of which fish species act as hosts and what conditions are required for successful recruitment and establishment of juveniles.
• Recommendation 3: that the importance of low flows and refugial habitats, reaches and waterholes, be formally recognised for freshwater mussels in the northern Murray-Darling Basin and the flow requirements of freshwater mussels be incorporated into flow management plans.
• Recommendation 4: that the role of refugial reaches and waterholes in the landscape persistence of mussels and fish be recognised and the flow required to maintain the integrity of these physical places in the channel network be understood and incorporated into flow management plans. This would require a basin- wide perspective of the Water Sharing Plans and Water Resource Plans to ensure the critical area of the Barwon-Darling River has adequate flows for long-term population survival.
• Recommendation 5: that a specific Freshwater Mussel Recovery Plan be developed in consultation with the communities of the northern Murray-Darling Basin and this plan articulate with Fish Recovery Plans.

Don’t damn the Macquarie – No Gin Gin dam!

Support our work here

We are a group of people living in the Dubbo and Barwon electorates whose future relies on the long term sustainability of the Macquarie-Wambuul River and its connectivity with the Barwon Darling/Baaka River.

For many Nations including the Wiradjuri, Wongaibon and Wayilwan, the River and the Marshes are a lifeblood.

The Macquarie Marshes are internationally recognised wetlands of significance, a nesting site for thousands of migratory birds. Water from the Macquarie Valley provides vital connectivity to the Darling/Baaka, on average a 21% contribution.

But right now, the government in NSW is planning a disastrous dam at on the Macquarie at Gin Gin, downstream of Dubbo that would allow even more water to be sucked out of the river. There are already too many straws in the glass, as the mass fish kills in the Darling/Baaka and the Macquarie/Wambuul have shown. Instead of fixing the problem, the government seem to be making it worse!

Support our work here

This is your chance to partner with us! Together we can stop this project, which in time promises to terminate the river upstream of Warren, and leave the river bed and marshes dry.

The impact of this project on downstream communities and the environment would be catastrophic.

For this message to reach far and wide, we need to raise $4,000 for advertising in the newspapers, radio and other media in our region.

We have already succeeded in uniting the community to widespread objection to this disastrous dam and slow down the planning process.

With your help, we can once and for all send a message to politicians that we will not have our rivers turned into irrigation channels!

If you can’t donate, then please consider writing an email to your local NSW Member of Parliament, or to your local newspaper objecting to the disastrous river and marsh destroying Gin Gin dam.

Please share our campaign – THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

Listen to an interview on ABC Western Plains about the Gin Gin dam proposal and the Public Meeting listen from 5.43.

Read an article from the Dubbo Photo News 17/6/21 about the Public Meeting

Read an article from Dubbo’s Daily Liberal 14/6/21 about the Public Meeting

---

Media Release 11th June 2021

Professor Richard Kingsford will join an impressive line-up of speakers at a public meeting about the proposed Gin Gin re-regulating dam on the Macquarie River.The public meeting is to be held on Wednesday the 23^rd June from 6.30pm at the Pastoral Hotel in Talbragar Street Dubbo.

Professor Kingsford’s expertise covers river ecology, water use in Australia, wetland ecology, waterbirds, river policy, and dam building effect.

Also speaking at the event will be:

• Tony Lees from Trangie
• Garry Hall, a private Ramsar Wetland Manager
• and Beverley Smiles, President of the Inland Rivers Network

The controversial Gin Gin dam proposal drew sharp criticism from the NSW Government last year when the Deputy Secretary of Water said the plans “do not currently demonstrate value for money and an efficient, effective and prudent use of public funds.”[1]

The proposal is expected to reduce water downstream for unregulated irrigation, and have a serious impact on populations of native fish.

“The Gin Gin dam would be a massive $84 million subsidy to the irrigated cotton industry. Downstream irrigators, graziers and businesses that cater to recreational fishing in the valley would all take a huge financial hit.

“There have been increasing calls for Dugald Saunders MP and the NSW Nationals to release the business case to the public once it is complete. What are they trying to hide?” Asks Mel Gray, Convenor of Healthy Rivers Dubbo.

The public are encouraged to come along to the Pastoral Hotel with their questions about the impacts the proposal would have on the river, the marshes and all of the people and wildlife that rely on them.

For details about the event contact Mel Gray 0431 471 310, or email healthyriversdubbo@gmail.com

Media Contact: Melissa Gray Convenor, Healthy Rivers Dubbo, 0431 471 310

---

[1] https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IGlRQI2C38xRXyPMJfzPgAN5Z_Y9OGZJ/view?usp=sharing

The proposed Gin Gin dam plans were slammed last year by the NSW Government as they “do not currently demonstrate value for money and an efficient, effective and prudent use of public funds.”

The proposal does not stack up economically, socially or ecologically.

Come along to the Pastoral Hotel on Wednesday 23rd June and hear from:

• Professor Richard Kingsford, Wetland Ecologist
• Tony Lees, Trangie Aboriginal Land Council
• Beverley Smiles, President of Inland Rivers Network
• and Garry Hall, Private Ramsar Wetland Manager

Wednesday 23rd June, 6.30pm at the Pastoral Hotel, Talbragar Street Dubbo.

Facebook Event

Media Release