Sunday just gone saw our Landcare team out on the steps of the Age of Fishes Museum in Canowindra for the town’s second Carp Muster, taking over the organising from Jacquie (ex Canowindra Connections) who did a fabulous job of getting this wonderful event established in the village last year.
We moved this years muster to the end of September to avoid the frosty start and sluggish fishing conditions and thankfully it paid off. With temperatures in the early 20’s, plenty of fresh air and fluctuating air pressure, the fish were biting in the Belubula & a good number of our fisher folks got lucky!
Bait was mostly sweet corn or worms and that got us a haul ranging from around 40cm to around 68cm – a mud loving monster of a fish.
By the time the competition closed we had a bucket load of around 30 carp to turn into fertiliser for our gardens. You can read about our fish fertiliser here.
In addition to fishing Sean from Ozfish ran an extremely interesting and well-attended workshop on wetland plants for the crowd that gathered while the fishing was still underway. We were all surprised to hear just how many native aquatic plants exist in NSW and how much life a few of these plants can support in a farm dam, billabong or stream. Sean brought a selection of plants along with him and together we made water-plant torpedo’s out of hessian cloth and stones to help get our own wetlands established. You can read about the plants we discussed and download a handy planting guide here.
All good events need food and we enjoyed a free Sausage sizzle provided & Cooked by Central Tablelands Local Land Services
with a little help from our Landcare team (Thanks Tracee and Will).
Early on in the day we had the Peel River Ramblers band drop by – well they were actually heading for the musem but we couldn’t resist a bit of a chat, finding out they were a blue grass inspired group from Tamworth who had played in the town the night before and were heading to Hill End for a gig that evening. We were also joined by three botanists who’d travelled from the Blue Mountains for a weekend away and by a group of five friends from Sydney who were interested in salt water ecology and habitat restoration. Plus we had some friends call in from neighbouring Little River Landcare and share stories of the planting they’ve been doing.
Local legend Richard Swansborough helped us out with some photography on the day, capturing the winners and grinners plus a few sneaky moments out by the river. It was great to have him join us again.
Carp muster is also a great time to clean up our riparian areas and surrounds and while we didn’t quite get the rubbish haul we did last year, we still managed to collect this lot of potential pollutants which included old tyres, broken glass and flourescent light bulbs. Thanks to community members who took part, for those who dropped empty feed bags into the Age of Fishes for us to fill – much appreciated and to Cabonne Council who provided the skip and some gloves to help with the clean up.
We’d like to thank Age Of Fishes Museum Canowindra, Canowindra Connections Centre, headspace Cowra, Cabonne Council and all our Landcare crew and members who made the day productive and fun. Also thanks to BCF Australia for donating the prizes. Finally, a special mention and thank you goes out to photographer Richard Swansborough who took pictures of all the winners.
Carp Muster happened during Biodiversity Month – a time when we raise awareness around the importance of protecting and conserving our unique and varied ecosystems. Water is life and it was great to spend time together, as a community, caring for our river and it’s surrounds.
