ON October 5, the local community celebrated a big milestone in a 20-year project by officially opening Lake Ouyen, which had been stocked with 1,000 golden perch and 1,000 silver perch fingerlings back in February. These native fish have got a great chance of survival because the reddies and carp haven’t turned up yet.
While power vessels can’t be used until facilities are complete (hopefully later this year) and the fish still need to grow to a catchable size, the Victorian Fisheries Authority is excited about the future of this fishery.
In 1998, Ouyen lost Timberoo Lake reserve and many other recreational waters with the shift away from open air gravity-fed irrigation channels to the Northern Mallee Pipeline and Wimmera Mallee Pipeline. Losing water to fish, swim and play in hit the community hard. So, they decided to do something about it.
The local community formed an association and started working with the state government, local government, catchment management authorities, water authorities, local businesses and non-for-profit groups to identify a suitable place for a new lake. The old Ouyen Reservoir site was selected and so began a journey to realise a dream of creating a new recreational water.
Congratulations to Ouyen Inc – a community peak body representing residents – and all the stakeholders involved in bringing Ouyen Lake to life!
