Obscene fishway

Following the story (Gaz 10/4) on the permit application the West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority is seeking a tunnel fishway, can someone please explain how they state they are removing the instream barrier (the Horseshoe Bend Tunnel) in accordance with their directive to remove all instream barriers in Gippsland’s rivers.

In order to install this proposed fishway, they are adding 17 more instream barriers to achieve the outcome they desire.

They have also disregarded the value placed on this important unique intact heritage site that has been carefully assessed by Heritage Victoria and placed on their register and ignored the many supporters of the Friends of the Horseshoe Bend Tunnel Group and the Hannaford family requests to produce a smaller and unobtrusive fish passage through this protected site.

The size of the proposed fishway is obscene eight metres wide and 4209 metres deep to protect a fish that is only 300mm long and will destroy this amazing part of Gippsland’s gold mining history.

The fact this story was printed the day before all the permit objections were due so it did not allow people time to prepare an objection, does not surprise me as the attempt of openness to the community by WGCMA is disgusting.

All they are trying to do is sell their fishway to the unsuspecting public who have not had to deal with them for well over 15 years.

Gweneth Myers, Diamond Creek