Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder Monitoring, Evaluation and Research Project: Edward/Kolety-Wakool River System Selected Area Technical Report 2022-23

2023
McCasker N, Healy S, Bond N, Gionfriddo C, Liu X, Stocks J, Trethewie J, van der Meulen D and Watts RJ.
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About the documents

These reports present the 2022-23 monitoring results from the Edward Kolety Wakool River system.

The summary report focuses on the ecological responses to water for the environment. The technical report provides detailed methods, analyses and results with management recommendations.

The 2022-23 results identified several key environmental outcomes, including:

  • The system did not experience large scale fish deaths caused by hypoxic conditions.
  • Watering created small and localised refuges for fish during hypoxic conditions.
  • As per the 2016 flood, the 2022 flood wiped out native water plants due to prolonged flooding.
  • There was no evidence of golden or silver perch spawning in 2022-23.
  • Floods can disrupt Murray cod nesting. The number of cod larvae collected was the second lowest on record since 2014. The lowest was in response to the 2016 flood.
  • Introduced fish made the most of the flood conditions.
  • Australian smelt numbers were the highest on record since monitoring commenced in 2014.
  • The native River blackfish appear to be continuing their move into new areas of the system.
  • High flows encourage the movement of juvenile golden perch into the system.

The 2022-23 refuge flows