A unique Climbing Fish population, so old their ancestors shared the Earth with dinosaurs, is set for extinction thanks to an Allambie DA approval.
Andrew Lo grew up amidst the concrete sprawl of Hong Kong but discovered a passion for Australian nature after emigrating here in the 1960s. He loved fossicking around the creeks of Manly Dam and became fascinated by native freshwater fish.
One day he observed a species that looked particularly unusual. It was “scaleless, cylindrical in shape, with gold flake adorning its dorsal side, had bright reddish orange fins and a body marked with chevron patterns”. He collected a specimen for the Australian Museum to identify in 1995. They confirmed, in amazement, that it was a Climbing Galaxias fish – something that existed nowhere else in Greater Sydney.
One moonlit evening, I joined Andrew, plus a photographer and journalist from the Sydney Morning Herald, and we searched for the fish by torchlight (the best way to see them). At the start of the assignment, the cameraman looked thoroughly bored and was smoking furtively to keep himself awake. Hours later we literally struggled to drag him away…such was the charisma of this little creature. I too was hooked on conservation from that point.
Andrew became quite a celebrity, appearing on a number of TV shows such as “Totally Wild”. His message was always the same, “To protect the fish you have to protect the water catchment”.
The Climbing Galaxias is fascinating in a number of ways. It can wriggle hundreds of metres upstream over steep, slippery rocks using its pectoral fins; it absorbs oxygen through its skin, and it’s been around for circa 90 million years – since dinosaurs ruled the earth!
Historically the Galaxias would have spent half of their life cycle in the ocean. But, after the unscaleable Manly Dam wall was built in 1890s the population became land-locked and somehow, managed to adapt their breeding patterns. The fish hunt for larvae, shrimps and beetles by sight so they require crystal clear water and are intolerant of the slightest muddying or change in pH levels. And therein lies the problem.
The Land and Environment Court recently granted (on appeal) permission for Allambie Heights Village Ltd to construct 24 luxury units on leased crown land adjoining Manly Warringah War Memorial Park. This is despite a DA twice being refused by Northern Beaches Council and the Local Planning Panel and well over a hundred community submissions pleading for the development not to proceed. The site incorporates the fragile water catchment and sits above the last solitary creek where the Galaxias is found.
Major construction in a sensitive area, which also involves bulldozing swathes of bushland does not auger well for the Galaxias. Manly Dam (the last swimmable freshwater lake in Sydney) will itself be at dire risk from pollution.
Since Andrew’s original discovery, the fish has been seen as an indicator for the ecological health of the catchment and championed by the local community as deserving protection. Currently 2,000 Australian plants and animals are on the threatened species list, and we lead the world in extinction. The moral of the story is that our environmental protection and planning laws are far too weak to safeguard biodiversity.
Northern Beaches Council did not conduct any aquatic surveys for the Development Application and currently has NO management or recovery plans for the Climbing Galaxias.