Queensland taxpayers have spent $24 million on a fishway that has shifted only three lungfish in three years.
The Australian lungfish is one of the three endangered species that are threatened by the Traveston Crossing Dam, along with the Mary River Cod and the Mary River turtle.
The State Government-owned company that is building the Traveston Dam, Queensland Water Infrastructure, initially modelled their protection of lungfish in the Mary River on the fishway system at Paradise Dam near Bundaberg on the Burnett River.
The evidence in the Paradise Dam case - tabled at a Federal Court preliminary hearing on July 31 - shows three tagged lungfish have been shifted by the $24 million fishway at the dam from March 2006 until March 2009.
While the fishway does allow other fish to move throughout the dam, it has not worked for lungfish, the evidence suggests.
The Wide Bay Burnett Conservation Council is challenging Burnett Water, operators of the Paradise Dam, in the Federal Court over the efficiency of the fishladder.
Australia's acknowledged expert on lungfish breeding, Professor Jean Joss from Macquarie University, confirmed the $24m cost of the Paradise Dam fishway yesterday.
Professor Joss said Queensland Water Infrastructure CEO Graham Newton and Premier Anna Bligh visited her lungfish breeding centre in Sydney last year where she advised them against a fishladder for Traveston.
Conservationists are concerned lungfish will not use fish ladders to go downstream, citing examples in June at North Pine Dam where 43 lungfish died after swimming over the dam spillway.
Jim Tait, an aquatic ecologist and fish biologist who examined the Department of Fisheries and Primary Industries data for Paradise Dam, concluded the fishway was ineffective for lungfish.
"From the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries monitoring data that has been made available, i.e. compiled from the inception of monitoring activities following the commissioning of the fishway in March 2006 to March 2009, it would appear that a total of three lungfish have been recorded to have entered the upstream fishway hopper," Mr Tait's report says.
The evidence also shows: "That no adult lungfish have been reported by the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries to have successfully used the upstream fishway.
"It would appear that most, if not all, the fish are juveniles."
The Federal Court proceedings, adjourned last week, are scheduled to reconvene on November 9.
A spokesman for the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries said they had only been contracted to count the lungfish and declined to comment on the statistics.
SunWater, who operate the Paradise Dam, said they were limited in their comment because the issue was before the Federal Court.
"However, what we can say is that SunWater is committed to building and operating its dams in an environmentally sustainable manner," a spokesman said.
It is still unclear how the Queensland Government plans to care for lungfish at the controversial $1.5 billion Traveston Crossing Dam near Gympie.
Infrastructure Minister Stirling Hinchliffe has acknowledged the Burnett Water fishway is "old technology".
No plan has yet been finalised for the lungfish at the broader and more shallow Traveston Crossing Dam. No plan is included in the information sent from Queensland Co-ordinator General Colin Jensen to Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett on Friday.
A statement from Mr Hinchliffe yesterday does not explain fishway plans for Traveston Crossing Dam.
"The Coordinator-General's conditions will be finalised when the report is finalised," the statement said.
"These conditions are more likely to contain an outcome and performance criteria than a design.
"The design and specification for movement of native aquatic species (lungfish, cod and turtles) will need to be subsequently informed by trial, finalised by QWI and approved by the Coordinator-General before construction."
A request to speak with someone from Queensland Water Infrastructure was declined.
A $35 million freshwater species conservation centre is proposed as part of a dam at Traveston Crossing.
This will have some research and breeding ponds.
Email a friend