Assessment of the Bromelton weir Vertical Slot fishway using a three antennae PIT array (2014).
The Bromelton Weir is located in the middle reaches of the Logan River, southwest of Brisbane. Since the construction of the weir and vertical slot fishway in 1996, no monitoring had been completed on the fishway. To monitor the fishway, a PIT system was chosen, partly because the fishway was located in the river channel making trapping techniques difficult. Over the last five years, 5768 fish have been PIT tagged in the Logan River. Detailed fish passage data from eight fish species was analysed and presented in a summary report to Seqwater. This study was also presented at Australian Society for Fish Biology conference held in Darwin in 2014.
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Optimising Fish Passage at the Cedar Grove Fishlock (2013 to 2016).
Between 2013 and 2016 several studies were undertaken at the Cedar Grove fish lock on the Logan River. This has including installing an automated fish monitoring PIT system and several targeted investigations. These have included, fish tagging, reports on fish passage success of larger bodied species (over 100mm) utilising the fishlock, small fish passage success using trapping, reporting on the success of works to rectify a rock ramp structure below the fishlock and increasing downstream fish passage using a flow restricting baulk.
A review of fishway monitoring was recently completed to summarise findings and highlight any data gaps in the monitoring program.
Hinze Dam Trap and Haul Fishway (2014 to present).
Since 2014 the team has been undertaking targeted research at the Hinze Dam fish transfer facility. Work at the fishway has included monitoring fish transfers, seasonal boat electrofishing in the Nerang River and in Hinze Dam, fish escapement experiments with different cone designs and documenting flow related trends in fish passage. Further work is continuing at the fishway to investigate the fish passage benefits by storing and releasing pulsed environmental flows.
Kirar Weir Fishlock Monitoring (2012-2016).
Kris Pitman (as a contractor to FRC Environmental) has been engaged as a fishway biologist for the design and implementation of the Kirar Weir fishway monitoring program. Kirar Weir is a Sunwater owned structure with a fish lock incorporated into its design. The first component of the project was to develop a fishway monitoring program which sets out the methodology to address the conditions of the development approval for the weir. The assessment includes fishway trapping, targeted riverine surveys and PIT tagging as well as fish lock optimisation. To date, the fish lock has been shown to be very successful recording a wide range of fish species, including lungfish utilising the fishlock.
