The Murray Darling Authority-requested delivery from the Goulburn to the Murray was scheduled to start last Saturday and fall back later next week, leaving slippery and muddy banks ahead of the busy first weekend in December.
Fishermen also regard a falling river as the worst possible conditions for catching fish.
Cr Stephen Threlfall, proprietor of the well-known Trelly’s Fishing and Hunting store, objected to the timing, pointing out that poorly timed river flows lead to a difficult camping experience and have reduced sales of outdoor recreation equipment by up to 40% in the past.
“The timing is critical to the economic trading of many businesses who deal with outdoor recreation and visiting fishers and campers,” Cr Threlfall said.
While local agencies such as the Goulburn Broken CMA are well aware of the impact of river flows on the community, the Murray Darling Authority has proven not to be: the CMA worked with Goulburn-Murray Water – which carries out the Murray Darling Authority’s requests for Goulburn water – to achieve a postponement of the flow.
G-MW’s coordinator of river operations, Guy Ortlipp, said on Monday that “we’ve worked through with the MDBA to be able to commence delivery of the pulse from Goulburn Weir on 2nd December.”
This will see the river reach its peak flow of 3000 megalitres a day at Shepparton on Saturday, December 6 and begin falling around December 8 after the main cod fishing weekend.
He added that the delivery was a much smaller flow than the recent environmental flows, with the Goulburn’s level rising by around 50cm.
