Your fees at work 2019-20

Every year the Recreational Fishing Licence (RFL) Trust Account allocates the fees you pay for a fishing licence to projects that directly improve recreational fishing in Victoria.

Large Grants Program

Through the 2019-20 round of the Recreational Fishing Grants Program – Large Grants Program, $549,354 will be allocated to the following 10 projects:

Commissioning grants program

The following two projects will be funded through the 2019-20 round of the Recreational Fishing Grants Program - Commissioning Grants Program.

Informing sustainable management of Victoria’s wild catch fisheries

The aim of this project is to collect catch and effort data from recreational fishers at key locations in Port Phillip Bay, Western Port, the Gippsland Lakes, Corner Inlet and the coastal Lakes Entrance fishery. The information is vital in providing measures of stock abundance, population structure, mortality and the effectiveness of bag and size limits.

The cost of the project is $163,000. This will provide for 225 individual sampling days and will cover the Port Phillip Bay, Western Port, Corner Inlet, Gippsland Lakes and Lake Entrance coastal fisheries.

Communication and compliance products

The aim of this project is to continue the range of products that assist recreational fishers to understand and comply with fishing rules, without having to refer to legislative documents that are often difficult to comprehend.

The cost of this project is $290,000. The Victorian Fisheries Authority will produce and distribute the following products to anglers:

  • 215,000 copies of the 2021 recreational fishing guide (including 10,000 in Chinese and 5,000 in Vietnamese)
  • 200,000 fish length rulers (100,000 saltwater and 100,000 freshwater)
  • 15,000 Murray spiny and general freshwater crayfish measures, and
  • 20,000 Murray cod length/weight rulers
  • 13,000 rock lobster measures.

Other RFL trust account expenditure

During 2019-20, RFL revenue will also fund:

  • Increased fish stocking into lakes and rivers;
  • The deployment of thirteen Fisheries Officers to boost enforcement and education;
  • Initiatives and programs under the Target One Million Phase 2 plan;
  • VRFish, to provide advice to the Victorian Government about the broad range of recreational fishers’ views on the management of the State’s fisheries resources;
  • The Victorian Fishcare program, which delivers responsible fishing education and events to the community;
  • Projects approved through previous rounds of the Recreational Fishing Grants Program for access and facilities, education, information and training, recreational fisheries research and fish habitat improvement.
  • Recreational Fishing Licence commissions paid to sellers; and
  • The costs incurred in the administration of the Recreational Fishing Licence, Grants Program and the Recreational Fishing Grants Working Group.

2019-20 Recreational Fishing Licence Trust Account Report

A report is tabled in Parliament each year concerning all RFL Trust Account revenue and expenditure. The 2019-20 Recreational Fishing Licence Trust Account Report is available for revenue spent in that and previous years.

Click here to view the report.
(PDF - 3.2 MB)