New South Wales Implementation Report 2004–2005

The Threatened Species Legislation Amendment Act 2004 (the Act) was assented in November 2004 and introduced changes to threatened species provisions of the Fisheries Management act 1994.

The Act introduces:
New categories of "critically endangered species", "critically endangered ecological community" and "vulnerable ecological community"

New listing criteria - To be prescribed by regulation. The draft regulation is currently being drafted by the Parliamentary Counsel’s Office and will be subject to a public consultation process.

Priority Action Statements - To set out strategies, timetables, priorities and performance indicators to promote the recovery of each threatened species, population and ecological community to a position of viability in nature and to manage each key threatening process.

New defences – To be established for routine agricultural management activities as defined in the Native Vegetation Act 2003.

Biodiversity certification provisions – To effectively “switch off” threatened species provisions for certified Local Environment Plans and certain activities associated with the native vegetation reform package where threatened species considerations have been adequately addressed.

Regulations – To limit or prescribe certain activities that are deemed to have a significant or non-significant impact on threatened species.

Accreditation of consultants - To accredit suitably qualified persons to undertake and prepare surveys and assessments relating to certification of Environmental Planning Instruments and/or 8 part test assessments.

Species Impact Statements (SIS) on the impact of recreational fishing on the Lachlan and Darling EEC’s are currently being prepared. The SIS’s are required in support of a permanent Ministerial order permitting continuation of recreational fishing activities in the EEC. The preparation of the SIS coincides with a general review and release of a public discussion paper on freshwater fishing regulations.  The SIS’s are expected to be exhibited early in 2006.

The Minister for Primary Industries has extended the interim order to permit the continuation of recreational fishing activities in the aquatic ecological community of the lower Darling River pending finalisation of the SIS.

A SIS on impacts of recreational fishing for stocked silver perch in specified impoundments on wild populations has been prepared and is expected to go on public exhibition in late 2005. The SIS is a precursor to declaring a permanent Ministerial order permitting continuation of recreational fishing for stocked silver perch. The existing “licence to harm” was extended from June 2005 to Dec 2005 to provide adequate time to complete the public consultation process.

The silver perch NSW draft recovery plan was publicly exhibited in late February 2005 to early April 2005. Public submissions have been assessed, the recovery plan finalised, and notice of the final approval will be gazetted in the near future.

The trout cod NSW draft recovery plan was publicly exhibited from June 2005 to July 2005. Public submissions have been assessed and the recovery plan is currently being finalised and should be released in the near future.

The river snail NSW draft recovery plan is prepared and approved for public exhibition. The plan should be publicly exhibited in the final quarter of 2005. Confirmed river snail specimens were discovered in irrigation pipelines in the Mildura area in late 2004. Only one other record of a living specimen has been found from an artificial environment in the last decade. The river snail is currently considered extinct throughout its natural range. 

The draft recovery plan for the endangered ecological community of the lowland catchment of the Murray River is prepared and ready for Ministerial consultation prior to public exhibition.

DPI is collaborating with EnvACT on a FRDC project assessing the establishment of reintroduced trout cod populations in the Murrumbidgee. The project had two components. The first used radio-tracking to assess dispersal of sub-adult trout cod in the Murrumbidgee at Narrandera. The second assessed establishment of stocked populations in large versus small waterways in the ACT. Fieldwork for both components has been completed and a final report is being prepared by EnvACT with the assistance of NSW DPI.

A captive breeding and reintroduction program for the southern purple spotted gudegon  is continuing at the Narrandera Fisheries Centre. In the first year (2004), 400 juvenile gudgeons were released into Adjungbilly Creek in the Murrumbidgee catchment, a waterway with similar habitat characteristics to that of the remnant populations. Follow up surveys at the two release sites failed to detect the establishment of a population. Production in 2005 improved markedly with 1,200 juveniles released at the same locations. It is hoped that a higher density stocking may aid the establishment of a self-sustaining population. A further 300 juveniles were retained at NFC and released into hatchery ponds containing Murray cod, trout cod, silver perch and golden perch broodstock. DPI wish to test whether self-sustaining populations of gudgeons can establish on site at NFC.

Similar trial captive breeding and reintroduction programs for southern pygmy perch and olive perchlet will be started at the Narrandera Fisheries Centre in 2005.  

Routine monitoring of remnant populations of southern purple spotted gudgeons in NSW was undertaken in 2005. All known populations have remained stable since the last monitoring round in 2002. Additionally, surveys following up public reports of purple spotted gudgeon in the Macquarie catchment located an additional population in Wuuluman Creek. Low water levels in the creek, due to the prevailing drought threatened the survival of this remnant population. NSW DPI was preparing to translocate individuals into local farm dams when environmental conditions in the creek improved due to local rainfall.

The Lachlan CMA and NSW DPI are planning a project to rehabilitate degraded Macquarie perch habitats in the upper Lachlan and Abercrombie catchments. The project involves documenting the distribution of Macquarie perch in both rivers, identifying their key habitat requirements, and increasing the quality of these habitat features in degraded reaches. 

A project to map and prioritise key threatening processes in the Lachlan catchment is underway and is due for completion in December 2005.  The results of this project will assist the CMA in expenditure of funds allocated to achieving outcomes for the aquatic environment as listed in the Lachlan Catchment Action Plan. 

The NSW Fisheries Scientific Committee, established under Part 7A of the Fisheries Management Act 1994 (FM Act), has made a final recommendation to list the aquatic ecological community in the natural drainage system of the lowland catchment of the Lachlan river an endangered ecological community (EEC). An interim order to permit the continuation of routine fishing activities for “non-threatened” species is currently being prepared and the final order listing the EEC on the schedules of the FM Act has been drafted and is due for gazettal in the near future.

The draft threat abatement plan for “the removal of large woody debris from NSW watercourses” is prepared and approved for public exhibition. The plan should be exhibited in the final quarter of 2005.