Karissa Lear

Three river restoration demonstration sites were created upstream of Bristol Rd in the Harvey River in autumn 2021. The project is a partnership between Harvey River Restoration Taskforce (HRRT), Greening Australia and the Water Corporation. Pre and post restoration ecological assessments were conducted in autumn and spring 2021, respectively. The surveys used the revised version of the DWER South West Index of River Condition (SWIRC) protocols, that specifically focussed on aquatic biota, and in addition depth profiling also occurred. The autumn 2021 surveys demonstrated there was no significant differences in the habitat, depths, fish/crayfish populations or macroinvertebrate communities between the control and restoration sites. The spring 2021 survey found an increase in abundances of several native fishes in both the control and restoration sites compared with the autumn 2021 surveys. It also recorded significantly larger Nightfish at the restoration site compared with the control sites and also Smooth Marron was recorded in the restoration sites, that had not been recorded in this reach during historical monitoring. The current progress report summarises the results of the autumn 2022 ecological survey of the three restoration and three control sites. The methods used replicated those employed in the previous surveys…