Target One Million - Phase 1
As part of the 2014 Victorian state election, the elected government committed $46 million towards recreational fishing, in the hope to grow participation to one million anglers by 2020. This plan was named Target One Million.
The same government was re-elected in the 2018 state election, and has committed a further $35 million to extending the Target One Million phase one plan into phase two. Click here to read about the 2019-2022 Target One Million Phase 2 commitments.
To get more Victorians fishing, more often, Target One Million will:
- halt commercial netting in Port Phillip and Corio Bays over eight years
- save Lake Toolondo
- pursue reciprocal licence arrangements with New South Wales
- ban netting at the mouths of rivers in the Gippsland Lakes
- establish a Better Fishing Facilities Fund
- increase fish stocking to 5 million fish per year
- implement a marine species stocking program
- open recreational trout cod fisheries in Beechworth
- stock barramundi into Hazelwood Pondage
- allocate 'Stronger Fishing Club' grants
- introduce a minimum legal size for trout
- grow the Victorian Trout Opening Festival
- remove horsepower and boat length restrictions at Blue Rock Lake
- undertake a statewide recreational catch survey
- deliver school education and children's fishing programs.