There are 2.6 million people living in Basin communities, spread across regional areas including small and remote communities. Communities care about native fish and recognise the important environmental, cultural, social and economic roles that native fish play. For First Nations people, native fish provide a vital cultural connection. Wellbeing is tied to the health of Country and therefore the recovery of our native fish is of great significance to their mental and spiritual wellbeing.

Native fish also play an important economic role. Tourism and recreation is worth around $8 billion a year to Basin communities, with recreational fishing contributing an estimated $403 million to Australia’s Gross Domestic Product and supporting nearly 11,000 jobs.

Over the past few years native fish in the Basin have faced tough conditions including widespread drought, reduced water availability and more recently, the effects of intense bushfires.

Water managers know that native fish are one part of a larger living, connected system and work needs to be done to protect these species. That’s why the $5 million in joint government funding has been invested to develop a Native Fish Recovery Strategy.

Basin governments, community, First Nations, recreational fishers and scientists have developed a Native Fish Recovery Strategy. The Strategy provides a high-level framework to guide future investment. It emphasises community engagement and ownership, focusing on recovering rivers of Basin-scale significance in a way that complements existing initiatives.

The Native Fish Recovery Strategy recognises that native fish move, breed and complete their life cycles over Basin-scales. This means that having healthy native fish populations in any given river is largely dependent on the health of native fish populations in connected catchments. The Strategy calls for investment in actions that complement state activities and maximise outcomes at local, regional and Basin-scales through coordinated efforts.

The Strategy has a 30-year horizon to 2050, with 10-year implementation stages that aim to achieve four broad outcomes:

Outcome One: Recovery and persistence of native fish

‍Outcome Two: Threats to native fish are identified and mitigated

‍Outcome Three: Communities are actively involved in native fish recovery

‍Outcome Four: Recovery actions are informed by best available knowledge.

Developing partnerships is a core element of the Strategy, so that First Nations people, recreational fishers, conservation groups, industry and the broader community can lead on-ground actions to recover native fish populations and invest in local economies. This will increase our joint knowledge-base, help to find novel solutions, improve capacity and promote community participation.