NSW Department of Primary Industries

Current projects on Murray Hardyhead

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Successful reintroduction of Murray Hardyhead into NSW

A critically endangered freshwater fish has made a big return to NSW’s Murray River waters for the first time in more than 10 years under a project to help save it from extinction. The Murray Hardyhead is a small fish (up to 9cm long) with an amazing ability to tolerate salinities higher than seawater. Considered extinct in NSW for more than a decade, this species was listed as critically endangered in 1999 and survived in just a handful of wetlands in northern Victoria and in the Riverland and Lower Lakes in South Australia.

A hand holding a murray hardyhead over a bucket

But in late 2018, a collaborative effort between numerous committed organisations and individuals, relocated over 830 Murray Hardyhead from South Australia’s Riverland to Little Frenchman's Creek, an environmentally-watered wetland in far western NSW.

Project update 2022

Three years on and the tiny fish are still thriving in their new home. Follow-up monitoring has revealed that several thousand Murray Hardyhead of numerous different sizes are now inhabiting Little Frenchman’s Creek, confirming that multiple spawning and recruitment events have been supported by this productive wetland.

Little Frenchman's Creek (Photo: I. Ellis)

Little Frenchman's Creek (Photo: I. Ellis)

Murray Hardyhead eggs caught in a net during a monitoring survey. Eggs indicate that the population is breeding (Photo: I. Ellis)

Murray Hardyhead eggs caught in a net during a monitoring survey. Eggs indicate that the population is breeding (Photo: I. Ellis)

Young Murray Hardyhead caught during a monitoring survey (Photo: I. Ellis)

Young Murray Hardyhead caught during a monitoring survey (Photo: I. Ellis)

Monitoring Murray Hardyhead at Little Frenchman's Creek (Photo: I. Ellis)

Monitoring Murray Hardyhead at Little Frenchman's Creek (Photo: I. Ellis)

Little Frenchman's Creek (Photo: I. Ellis)
Murray Hardyhead eggs caught in a net during a monitoring survey. Eggs indicate that the population is breeding (Photo: I. Ellis)
Young Murray Hardyhead caught during a monitoring survey (Photo: I. Ellis)
Monitoring Murray Hardyhead at Little Frenchman's Creek (Photo: I. Ellis)

The relocation is a joint project involving the NSW Department of Primary Industries Fisheries, Western Local Land Services, the Commonwealth Government, the SA Department of Environment and Water, Aquasave - Nature Glenelg Trust, the Murray Darling Wetlands Working Group, and the owners of the Wingillie Station in western NSW. Wingillie Station is owned by the Hazel L Henry Farmland Nature Refuges Trust, which has been working with the Murray Darling Wetlands Working Group and Commonwealth Environment Water Office for several years to improve the condition of the floodplain and wetland habitats across the station.

Check out a video of the translocation (4:18mins)

See Murray Hardyhead for more information about the species

www.dpi.nsw.gov.au