General News
24 February, 2023
Our precious waterways
Climate Eyes is a book which captures the grassroots stories of survival and adaptation through the eyes of Wimmera Mallee residents who lived through the devastating Millennium drought of 1999 to 2009. Wimmera Mallee News this week publishes the...
Climate Eyes is a book which captures the grassroots stories of survival and adaptation through the eyes of Wimmera Mallee residents who lived through the devastating Millennium drought of 1999 to 2009.
Wimmera Mallee News this week publishes the fourth in our series of excerpts, featuring the story of veteran angler Chris Spence.
Enjoy the read...
'The Wimmera River has really started firing once again
Despite being on the edge of the Little and Big Deserts, the Wimmera had a tradition as a water playground.
The region’s 17,500km-long open channel system filled lakes which attracted thousands of anglers, water skiiers and campers each year.
Swamps were ideal for catching yabbies and rivers popular for swimming and rowing.
Then in the late 1990s the rains stopped and wetlands, which had been full for decades, began to dry up.
A generation of young people never got to waterski, swim locally, learn to fish or go through the ritual of catching, cooking and eating yabbies.
Instead of catching fish for the table in Green Lake near Horsham, a band of locals waded out to rescue and relocate the last few Murray cod before they perished.
The lake later filled with fairy grass which caught fire and burned the nearby football facilities. It was only the creation of the $688 million, 9159km long Wimmera Mallee Pipeline that brought the water back to the rivers and some of the lakes.
Veteran angler Chris Spence believes that while the region is never going to return to the halcyon years of angling of the 1980s and 1990s there is plenty to look forward to with careful water resource management.
“You look at the run-off patterns and there just is not the water getting into our storages there used to be, so we can’t continue to plan as if there will be,” Mr Spence said.
“We have to ensure we get the maximum value for it across the economy, the environment and recreation.”
Mr Spence does not believe environmental and recreational water are mutually exclusive. His long-term vision for angling in the region is a series of permanent lakes closer to the Grampians, supplemented by river fishing and seasonal flows into non-managed lakes and creeks in boom seasons.
Mr Spence believed changes in farming practices had been a major driver in the lower in-flows into the water storage system.
“We get the flows off the rocky ground in the heart of the catchment in the Grampians but it is not supplemented by as much off the agricultural land because farmers have improved their soils to allow them to retain more moisture.”
In spite of the drying out of recreational water in the 21st century Mr Spence said he was still upbeat about angling’s future.
“Fishing is a great way to appreciate the wonderful natural environment we have around us, and now we have the future of a lot of our lakes and rivers shored up to a large extent with the pipeline, there is a lot to look forward to if things are managed correctly.”
In terms of the rivers, he said the run of reasonable years following the drought had meant biodiversity was building back and carp control programs were starting to do their job.
“Fishing in our smaller lakes and yabbying the swamps is not something that will happen every year in our climate, but we need to ensure they are not left out when we’re making our water decisions as they are very important to a lot of people.”
Mr Spence said angling and fishing were a critical part of the Wimmera’s identity.
“We saw people leaving the region during the drought and part of that was that lack of water and the opportunity to get outdoors for a morning or afternoon or whatever.
“We’re now set up better with the pipeline to deal with drought, now it is a matter of the communities and the officials working together to keep our water systems as healthy as possible."
* Tell us your story of perseverance in the face of extreme conditions - and why you refused to give up. Writers of the best three stories - up to 500 words - will receive a copy of the book Climate Eyes. Send your stories - with a picture of yourself and/or your family - to: editor@wimmeramalleenews.com.au with "climate eyes" in the subject line. Entries close Wednesday February 22.