SYDNEY: New South Wales government has embarked on a Noah’s Ark type operation to move native fish from the Lower Darling to safe havens before high temperatures return to the already stressed river basin.

Researchers have warned of other alarming ecological signs that the Lower Darling River – part of the giant Murray-Darling Basin – is in a dire state, following last summer’s mass fish kills.

Professor Fran Sheldon, from Griffith University’s Australian Rivers Institute, said only one surviving colony of river mussels had been found along the river and there were signs that river red gums were under severe stress.

“If the river red gums die, and some are hundreds of years old, there will be a domino effect. Banks will collapse, there will be massive erosion and it will send sediments down the river.”

“These sort of ecological collapses are much harder and expensive to reverse,” she warned.

The New South Wales government announced a $10m rescue package last week to mitigate the effects of the river crisis on native fish this summer.

(Agencies)