Researching the Fitzroy

The Barrage at Camballin is the only man-made structure on the main channel of the Fitzroy River and was built about 40 years ago to move water into Snake Creek to water crops. The crops failed but the Barrage stayed and has not been working properly since then.

In July of this year Nyikina-Mangala Traditional Owners along with Murdoch University Fish Biologists, Kimberley Land Council (KLC), Land & Sea Unit staff and Yiriman Project staff undertook the last research field trip to look at the effects of the Barrage on the flow of fish up and down the Fitzroy River.

This project will help Traditional Owners, government and scientists work out if the Barrage needs a fish passage on it to let fish swim over it in the dry season. The group spent three days at the Camballin Barrage netting with three different size nets above and below the Barrage.

The netting showed that there is a big difference in the types of fish found. The research showed that
freshwater sawfish and other important fish, including bull sharks and other fish that breed in the sea are often trapped below the Barrage for up to 10 months of the year, until the wet comes. It’s only in the wet that they can move up or down stream properly, if the wet is a good one.

The Barrage project linked in strongly with another project that Traditional Owners, the fish biologists, Kimberley Language Resource Centre (KLRC) and Kimberley Land Council had done on the cultural values and biological importance of the freshwater sawfish, which scientists call Pristis microdon in Latin.

The Fitzroy River is the last place in the world where you can find good numbers of freshwater sawfish. The fish biologists were happy to find out different things about the sawfish’s body, what it likes to eat and how old it is.

But one of their big findings was that freshwater sawfish give birth to their young at the mouth of the Fitzroy and then the young ones use the Fitzroy to grow for the next four to five years or until they become adults at more than 2 metres. They then they head back to the sea where they grow to up to 7 metres long. This means that the sawfish is both a freshwater and saltwater fish and that those caught in the Fitzroy are juveniles and haven’t had young themselves yet.

Nyikina-Mangala, Bunuba, Gooniyandi and Walmajarri Traditional Owners were happy to be involved in the project for recording language names and uses of the sawfish. It was a good opportunity for everyone to get back out on to country so that stories and cultural knowledge could be exchanged and passed down.

These projects are good for both scientists and Traditional Owners because very different types of knowledge about the sawfish and country are shared, but all cultural knowledge remains the property of Traditional Owners.

The Barrage Project was funded by the Land and Water Australia Small Grants project and the sawfish project was funded by WWF with in-kind contributions from KLC, KLRC, Yiriman Youth Project and Murdoch University Fish Group.

Thank you to both of these funding bodies for the support you have provided and a special thanks to the fish biologists for your commitment to also meeting the agenda of Traditional Owners in your research. — Jean Fenton