Rodney Tonkin

Rodney Tonkin is a retired academic with a keen interest in fly-fishing and waterways management. He is currently president of the NSW Council of Freshwater Anglers and has been a member of Orange Trout Acclimatisation Society (OTAS) for many years. He is also a member of the Recreational Fishing Freshwater Trust Expenditure Committee, which administers licence money from recreational angling. As well, he works with the Department of Primary Industries to improve waterways (including the eradication of willows) and eliminate dangers to threatened species.

"If you look at the top end of Lake Canobolas, it's all open wetland in which the bird population is coming alive again. We get white herons and ducks and other native birds there. In addition, the stream is running well and the fish are coming back. We've had rainbow trout up to two or three pounds in Meadow Creek Stream."

My career has been as an academic but I've always been interested in waterways because of my angling interest.

Lake Canobolas became infested with redfin. Orange Trout Acclimatisation Society attempted to overcome them in the late 1970s but it wasn't successful. There were hundreds of thousands of them that destroyed the food supply and any resemblance of a fishery.

The willows, through defoliation in autumn, also create a problem. Orange City Council has been extraordinarily supportive working towards eradicating willows in our streams.

If you look at the top end of Lake Canobolas, it's all open wetland in which the bird population is coming alive again. We get white herons and ducks and other native birds there. In addition, the stream is running well and the fish are coming back. We've had rainbow trout up to two or three pounds in Meadow Creek Stream.

The NSW Department of Primary Industries has been focusing on habitat restoration to improve the freshwater fisheries. The Recreational Fishing Freshwater Trust Expenditure Committee is looking at riverside habitat and eliminating the threats to species such as Macquarie perch and silver perch.

We're getting there but it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort, and it's important that we don't stand off with these major issues, and gradually work away at them.