Special “stairs” will be built to help fish access breeding grounds in a Sunshine Coast waterway.
Sunshine Coast Council Division 10 Councillor David Law said weirs currently blocked the progress of migratory fish along Petrie Creek in Nambour.
Cr Law said fishways, staircase-like structures, made with rocks, would be retrofitted into the existing weirs allowing fish to bypass these barriers to access the entire waterway.
“This will allow migratory species such as long finned eels, Australian bass, freshwater mullet, sea mullet and empire gudgeon to navigate past barriers and access critical breeding habitats,” he said.
Cr Law said Petrie Creek was approximately 30 km long, with numerous tributaries feeding into it and had two weirs which acted as barriers preventing native fish movement unless there was an extreme rain event causing the weirs to flood.
He said this usually only happened on average 1.8 days a year, which created a problem for fish lifecycles, as many native fish bred and fed upstream before moving to the open ocean to mature.
“Once completed, the fishways will provide native aquatic species with access along the entire creek and its tributaries for up to 314 days a year.
“The fishways will revive native fish populations, improve the health of our waterways and inject more fish into our river system for recreational fisherman.”
Cr Law said it would also benefit other creatures, like platypus, turtles and birdlife, which would have access to more habitat and food.
“If the weirs were removed completely, water levels would drop in the creek disrupting the sensitive balanced ecosystem.”
Sunshine Coast Environment and Liveability Portfolio Councillor Maria Suarez said when completed, the fishways would be the first of a kind on the Sunshine Coast.
“This will open up the river system, benefiting fish, our environment, and our community,” Cr Suarez said.
She said construction should be completed by the end of the year.
