Installing Woody Habitat into Barkers Creek Reservoir

As part of Target One Million we have installed woody fish habitat into Barkers Creek Reservoir, near Harcourt, to provide new homes for the thousands of Murray cod and golden perch that have been stocked there recently.

Barkers Creek Reservoir is a small storage that supplies the Harcourt irrigation district. Once a popular trout fishery, the reservoir contains very little natural aquatic habitat following dam works a few years ago and changes to storage operations.

Small project, big impact

Rather than dumping heavy native timber root balls around the reservoir, we installed 25 small timber ‘brush piles’ and a few larger logs in 10 different clusters throughout the reservoir.

These clusters create habitat that provides shelter for all manner of aquatic life from invertebrates through to larger fish like Murray cod.

The project has more than doubled the amount of fish habitat in the reservoir!

Contractors collected the timber that was donated by a local landholder after a storm brought down several redgum trees on their property.

The semi-trailer load of timber was delivered to site, cut to size and connected with stainless steel cable to a concrete block to ensure brush piles would sink.

Where are they?

The clusters of habitat have been placed strategically throughout the reservoir and have been GPS marked.

They are not marked with a buoy or any other floating indication.

Kayak and boat anglers can use Google Maps via the list below to locate themselves right above each of the habitat sites using their mobile phone.

Barkers Creek Reservoir water levels can fluctuate throughout the irrigation season, so some of the woody habitat may become exposed. We endeavoured to locate the structures in spots that will remain inundated for the entire year, however at times they could be exposed.

We encourage those enjoying the new on-water access to take care when lower water levels are experienced.

Click here for a printable map of the habitat sites.

GPS coordinates