Darling River fish kill response: $25m spent on business cases and planning

Darling River fish kills are set to continue as the NSW Government spends $25m on business cases, rather than a permanent fishway.

Darling River fish kills will continue without a permanent fishway at Menindee. The NSW Government is instead spending $25m on busniess cases and a temporary fishway that was pulled out in May.

The NSW government’s $25m bid to prevent a repeat of the 2018-19 and 2023 Darling River fish kills by building a permanent weir at Menindee, is instead being pumped into business cases, strategic planning and governance models.

To date all the government has done is contract the installation of a $6.5m “state-of-the-art” Fishheart temporary fishway, which was installed and operated at Menindee weir for about four months before being pulled out in May.

Of the remaining $18.5m, the government is spending:

$4.5m to design and implement a Menindee-specific mass fish death event response sub-plan;

$6m to complete a detailed business case for permanent fish passage;

$1.7m to set up a new governance model;

$5m to monitor water quality, including $3m to install real-time monitoring buoys and data loggers, a $1m to maintain them, plus another $1m to develop a framework to “make our data easier to navigate”; and

$600,000 for strategic planning for on-ground rehabilitation works.

NSW Irrigators Council chief executive Claire Miller said: “I don’t understand why we have to get these business cases (done), costing millions of dollars.”

“The case was made when millions of fish died in response to drought in 2019 and floods in 2023, because Menindee Weir stopped their natural movement up and down the river.”

NSW Fisheries has yet to release any details on the effectiveness of the temporary tube fishway, simply stating it is “working closely with Fishheart on a report detailing fish numbers and species that passed through the unit during the first season

“The Fishheart unit entered its off season in May 2025 and has been removed from the river for maintenance and upgrades.”

NSW Fisheries will continue trials of the temporary fishway for another two seasons, before deciding what action to take on a permanent structure.

Meanwhile a NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water spokesman said the NSW chief scientist’s investigation of the 2023 Menindee fish kill made it “very clear that boosting the health of the river system would require a multi-pronged approach, including a range of infrastructure, operational and policy upgrades.

“It is important to note this is not a simple process – if progressed, the project would involve retrofitting incredibly complex infrastructure onto existing weirs that were built decades ago.

“Business cases are essential to ensure the NSW public is getting value for money. In NSW, infrastructure worth more than $10 million cannot be approved without a robust business case.”