Lake Claredon - RIP

[sav]

Checked out Lake Claredon (Qld - near Lowood) the other day and there is little more than a spit left in the dam. It is technically listed as 0% full.
Does anyone know if there were ever fish stocked in the dam. Couldn't see any reminents of a boat ramp so I suspect it was never a fishing impoundment. With the irrigation going on around that area I suspect there would never be any potential for a fish stock in that impoundment.
Regards
Sav

[Fitzy]

Hi Sav,
I can't remember Clarendon ever being more than about 8%. (I could well be wrong tho).
Even tho its close to my home, I've never even tried fishing it, bank launching only & a 4x4 is recommended I'm told.
There has been fish stocked into it, got the figures here somewhere, will try to dig them out for you when I get the chance.
There was a crisis meeting last week with the premier & a few minsters visiting the valley & talking to irrigators about concerns on lack of water.
To me its quite obvious that Sunwater/DNR have (as usual) well & truly over allocated the water from these dams in the hope that they get the odd good rainy season & can actually sell all of the water that a cylcone can drop.
I managed to push into one of these meetings (at Atkinsons Lagoon which is also at 0%) & got my 2 cents worth at the premier. While they were debating over the $300 000 that could be earnt by farmers from having more water, I told them that fish stocking can bring $4 million into the valleys ecconomy if there was SOME water in all the dams. Not fairy tales, this is fact.

There is an urgent need for minimum water levels in ALL of our stocked lakes. But while ever they can't count a direct tax from fish stocking & the associated tourism/fishing opportunites it creates, we are pushing poop up hill.

However we will keep trying!

Cheers,

Fitzy..

[lordy]

Hi Sav,
I can't remember Clarendon ever being more than about 8%. (I could well be wrong tho).
Even tho its close to my home, I've never even tried fishing it, bank launching only & a 4x4 is recommended I'm told.
There has been fish stocked into it, got the figures here somewhere, will try to dig them out for you when I get the chance.
There was a crisis meeting last week with the premier & a few minsters visiting the valley & talking to irrigators about concerns on lack of water.
To me its quite obvious that Sunwater/DNR have (as usual) well & truly over allocated the water from these dams in the hope that they get the odd good rainy season & can actually sell all of the water that a cylcone can drop. #
I managed to push into one of these meetings (at Atkinsons Lagoon which is also at 0%) & got my 2 cents worth at the premier. While they were debating over the $300 000 that could be earnt by farmers from having more water, I told them that fish stocking can bring $4 million into the valleys ecconomy if there was SOME water in all the dams. Not fairy tales, this is fact.

There is an urgent need for minimum water levels in ALL of our stocked lakes. But while ever they can't count a direct tax from fish stocking & the associated tourism/fishing opportunites it creates, we are pushing poop up hill.

However we will keep trying!

Cheers,

Fitzy..

Its strange to think that they couldn't set aside 10% or even 5%, then let them sell of the other 90-95%.

1. One thing occasionally brought up is that they can resell that 5-10% every year. Thats bunk, how often are these dams at 100% anyway? Not often.

2nd. if you set aside 10 then thats 10% farmers can't have. Again thats bunk. It is true for the 1st year only, or if the dam overflows.

Think of it this way, if 0% is kept and enough rain falls to fill it to 50%, then farmers get that 50%.

If 10% is kept and that same rain falls then its now at 60% and the farmers still get their 50% of capacity. There is no loss unless it overflows, in which case they have a one off loss up to 10% of the water (until the dam hits 10% again which could be 5-10 years). Thats 10% spread out over 5-10 years, ie taking as little as 1-2% from farmers allocations. In some dams which rarely if ever overflow its no loss at all!


It makes sense to reserve a fair amount of water for the fish as its not going to make much of a difference to the outcome of the dam.