More than a hundred years after it disappeared from the river, the Macquarie perch is back in the Big Badja — a result conservationists are hailing as a major step forward for one of the country's most endangered native fish.
The species, absent from the south-east New South Wales stream since 1913, has been reintroduced as part of the Snowy 2.0 Threatened Fish Management Plan. The plan exists to counterbalance the effects of the major hydro scheme by restoring populations of at-risk freshwater fish throughout the area, and the Big Badja release is one of its headline achievements.
Macquarie perch were once common across the southern Murray-Darling, but decades of dam building, habitat degradation, sediment runoff and pressure from introduced fish have reduced them to a few isolated refuges. With so few populations left, extending their range into a new river is regarded as a genuine conservation breakthrough.
A wide partnership made the return possible. Captive-bred fish came from the NSW Government's Narrandera Fisheries Centre and Victoria's Snobs Creek hatchery, while adult fish were relocated from Cataract Dam to strengthen the new colony with mature, breeding-ready stock. Snowy Hydro bankrolled the program under its threatened-species obligations, supported on the ground by the Monaro Acclimatisation Society.
Combining hatchery juveniles with translocated wild adults is a calculated strategy. The young fish build numbers fast, but transplanting older wild fish improves the odds of natural spawning and helps the population settle into its new surroundings instead of depending solely on hatchery releases.
The Big Badja earned its place on the list because it retains the cold, clean, oxygen-rich water and rocky structure Macquarie perch require — habitat that has been lost across much of their historic territory. Returning the fish to a river they once dominated also spreads risk: maintaining several secure populations means a single drought, fire or disease event is far less likely to erase the species.
For anglers, the lesson is that thriving native fisheries rest on sustained habitat investment, not just regulations. Macquarie perch stay fully protected and off-limits to harvest, yet their comeback is followed keenly by freshwater fishers as a sign of the wider native-fish recovery taking hold across the upper Murray-Darling.
Should the relocated fish take hold and spawn, the Big Badja may join the small list of self-sustaining Macquarie perch strongholds — a patient conservation success stitched together from hatchery science, careful translocation and the efforts of agencies, industry and local volunteers.