Minister looks after the Loddon

Keen fisho and mate Robbie Alexander wrote to the Minister querying the state of the lower Loddon and recently received this reply,

Good on ya Robbie, now to let the water authorities know so they don't turn off the tap again.

http://www.robretta.com/loddon.pdf

15th August, The Loddon Flows!! (now to save it from being turned off again)

The Loddon River at Loddon weir, Fernihurst, began to flow again today when the upper Loddon River went into  low flood with flows of 4.55mgl over the Lanncoorie weir measured on Friday 13th August 2010.

With low concrete weirs  in place at Bridgewater and Serpentine, there was no buffer in the system to take up, and those flood waters arrived at the Loddon weir last night at about midnight.
Today there was a stream of locals bringing down their kids to witness an event many of them has not seen before, water flowing through the weir and into the lower river,,lets hope they will see it again, and often..

Down stream of the Loddon weir there was significant flow at the Fernihurst Serpentine road bridge ( as you would expect considering what was happening just a few km upstream,

 the Boort bridge was a different story with clean water flowing through and not the red raging turbid water found at Fernihrst

but water had not yet reached the Gilmour's road bridge near the Macoorna channel and so no update photo was taken as it was the same as last week.

The challenge now is to keep the water flowing and nurse the river back to health.
It would of been amazing to think that this was an event orchestrated by the management, time will tell if they get the idea.

On a management issue, Environment Victoria conducted a healthy rivers seminar this weekend which i attended and will post information here to keep you informed.

Stay tuned for developments.

cheers

Ray...

its a day to smile.

Healthy Rivers Seminar, Seymour 14th August 2010

G'day everyone, just thought i would let you all know that i will be attending the Healthy Rivers seminar this weekend to push awarerness for the plight of the Loddon and lobby for something to be done.
Once i get back I will let you know how I went.

I emailed the farmers federation a few weeks ago to gain an insight into the issue from their perspective, but did not recwive a response...one day I hope to be in discussion with them as an ally to the cause.

Cheers

Ray

NFA (Victoria) endorses campaign

Last night at a committee meeting of NFA ( Victoria) full endorsement was given to this campaign to return some water flow to the Lower Loddon river . 

Some might see this as a conservation push by NFA but in reality its pretty hard to have a native fishery without at least some water flow in the system.

It was suggested to the author that a response from GM water might be in order to explain the situation. Through Mr. G. Creed , Secretary of NFA, the question will be put to GM water . Once a response from GM water is forthcoming, it will be posted here.

more information to come

Research from stream scientists,

water policy from the relevant water authority,

and the Native Fish Strategy as issued by the MDB authority

More photo's from the lower loddon from Gilmour lane to Kerang.

The Macorna Channel as it heads down to the Loddon River.....but where's the water ?



There it is, kept back by the new remote controlled regulator.



Upsteam of the Macorna channel is the Gilmour Lane Bridge , and this is what the river looks like here. Note the saplings growing in the river bed which suggest to me that the river hasn't flowed for quite a number of years.



This is viewed from the south side of the Gilmour Lane bridge


Further upstream as one crosses over the river on the Wren road bridge, a small pool of water is visible through the snag pile and the frogs can be heard. Sadly, no fish are present as the river totally dried up a few short yrs ago in the height of the drought.



Near Hewitt Road in Gannawarra Shire there are also remnant pools but sadly the water is stagnant and Algea blooms are dominant, Frogs don't seem to mind that much. Pity the fish weren't as resiliant.





The local irrigation channels don't seem to have the same issue with water supply that the river does. Even though there is no draw down at this time of year the irrigation channels all seem to be rather full and there are new solar panelled, remote controlled regulators that are being installed on most channels. It seems to be that this upgrade works are all part of the system works to make the irrigation system more efficient and controllable.

On the Boort Pyramid road, a bit further south and upstream the river is crossed and this is what it looks like there.

The water you see in these pools is probably from the local rains that have fallen in the last couple of months and not from any release from the weir upstream.

And this is the total amount of water being (mistakenly) released from the Fernihurst weir. It seems as though the gate can't seal off all the water though a faulty gate rather than a controlled outfall.

And yep, thats all the water flowing down the lower loddon, it probably gets soaked up in the first few hundred metres, but believe it or not,

this little fella came out of one of the last pools just below the weir wall and goes to show the resilience of these native fish that once were so prevalent throughout this system. Not just golden perch existed in this reach from Fernihurst to Kerang, but anecdotal evidence is that Cod also existed prior to the water drying up.