Extinct fish reintroduced in Victorian waterway

A fish declared extinct in one state in the 1980s has been resurrected, with hundreds reintroduced to the wild in a major waterway.

An extinct fish has been reintroduced to waterways in northern Victoria.

The olive perchlet is a five to six centimetre fish and plays a key role in the ecosystem by eating tiny water insects, but the species was thought to have been wiped out from Victoria and South Australia, while populations in NSW and Queensland survived.

A breeding program in Victoria has however produced 200 healthy adults, which were set free in a northern national park in February.

“The release of the olive perchlet is yet another success of the Allan Labor government’s Nature Fund, which aims to stop the decline of native plants and animals and improve Victoria’s natural resources,” Environment Minister Steve Dimopoulos said.

The olive perchlet were thought to be extinct in Victoria. Picture: Supplied

“We’re supporting Victoria’s treasured native species by making sure they are protected and helping them to repopulate their native habitat.”

The state government funded just under one-third of the $1m olive perchlet project.

Releasing the perchlet is part of a long-term plan to repopulate species on restored flood plain habitats throughout the Murray River corridor.

The small-bodied olive perchlet was last seen in the wild in 1929. The pieces was declared extinct in Victoria in 1988. One single fish was spotted in 2022 near Mildura.

Genetically distinct varieties of the olive perchlet live in eastern NSW and in the western Murray-Darling catchment.

The olive perchlet were a key part of the diet of shags. Picture: Supplied

The Murray-Darling variety was once widespread in South Australia, Victoria, western NSW and southern Queensland.

Man-made intrusions on their habitats – particularly land clearing and human-affected rapid changes in water levels – choked the species into extinction outside NSW and southern Queensland.

They live in the vegetated edges of lakes, creeks, swamps, wetlands and rivers, usually in areas with little or no flow, particularly backwaters. The species was also a key staple in the diet of shags until the 1970s in South Australia.

The Victorian Fisheries Authority’s Snob’s Creek Conservation Hatchery grew the recently reintroduced fish, and let them free into Cameron’s Creek in the Gunbower National Park in February.