Scientists and Elders collaborate on river health

Students and teachers praised the value of experiencing hands-on activities outside the classroom, and interacting with WaterNSW scientists and other experts to learn about the snagging project as well as future career paths.

“The highlight of today is getting our kids outside the classroom and down on the river, being able to engage, see and touch how these projects work, and seeing the level of interaction the kids have had,” Ben Bowman, Agriculture teacher, Peel High School, said.

“They’re absorbing far more being out here on the river learning rather than sitting in the classroom reading in a textbook. You can see it by the engagement they have – you could almost hear a pin drop in some of those talks, and for me that’s so exciting.”

Zach Vidler, Year 10, Peel High School, said: "It’s important to be out here in Culture because me as an indigenous man I’ve always been connected to Country. I was always taught ‘look after Country, and it will look after you’ so I really take that to heart and that’s what I do. I've been finding today really interesting, seeing how all the different machines and how different fishing, works.”

Evelyn Hocquard, Year 10, Peel High School, said: "It was a really nice experience to be able to learn about how water quality monitoring works, and about fish health and some of the ways that people are protecting these species. Today has helped me gauge we’ve come from, what we’ve evolved from.”

The day began with a smoking ceremony and welcome to country by Uncle Len Waters with internationally acclaimed Uncle Mick Atkins on didgeridoo. Uncle Len told stories of the importance of rivers to First Nations culture, and how to respectfully care for rivers and the life within them

Activities tie into the school curriculum and led by WaterNSW scientists and Elders included:

• Sharing cultural knowledge and stories about the Peel River, fish species, cultural practices, and traditional fish trapping.
• Demonstrating how WaterNSW uses small autonomous boats to monitor water quality.
• Exploring the science of ongoing monitoring of fish numbers and other populations.
• Demonstrating electrofishing – using an electrical current to temporarily stun fish to allow researchers to measure and examine fish before being released back into the water.
• Making seed bombs to help regenerate native vegetation.

WaterNSW General Manager Regional Operations North, Michelle Yeaman, said WaterNSW was delighted to partner with Traditional owners to jointly deliver the environmental educational session.

“We’ve worked closely with our partners to co-design an approach to increase education, training, procurement and employment opportunities as part of project delivery, and help improve upon the social, economic and cultural outcomes for the Tamworth First Nations community,” Michelle said.

Walaaybaa Junior Rangers Program Project Coordinator, Jolene Faint, said: “Gali (water) is extremely sacred to our culture and it’s inspiring to be a part of such a worthwhile learning opportunity for our young people.

"Building partnerships such as this amazing opportunity to collaborate with WaterNSW, will benefit the outcomes of future generations for years to come,” Jolene said.

Local First Nations business Indigico Creative was engaged to produce digital illustrations for the education booklet provided to students, as well as making a storytelling video to showcase the day. As part of the partnership with Tamworth LALC, the Walaaybaa Rangers cleared vegetation from the site and provided catering for lunch.

WaterNSW completed the installation of 50 snags from reclaimed hardwood trees along a 45- kilometre section of the Peel River between Chaffey Dam and Tamworth in mid-2024.

A snag is an often naturally occurring partially or fully submerged trunk in a river that provides a habitat for a variety of vulnerable and native wildlife. Snags for this project were sourced from trees already removed to build the New England Solar project at Uralla.

The re-snagging is part of a package of biodiversity offsets to mitigate the impacts from the temporary operation of the Chaffey Dam to Dungowan pipeline completed by WaterNSW in 2020 to increase water security for Tamworth, Moonbi and Kootingal during drought.

Work will start in early 2025 to install self-cleaning pump screens to protect native fish eggs and other aquatic species, and protect essential infrastructure from debris damage. WaterNSW will also be monitoring fish numbers and other populations in the area for the next five years as part of the biodiversity offset plan.