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Errol Beitz

Clare Weir, completed in 1978, is situated on the Burdekin River some 50 kms from the mouth near Ayr in North Queensland.

A fish ladder was built on the right bank as part of the original construction but observations of the fishway’s performance over a number of years and more recently by the Queensland Fisheries Service (QFS) have established that the fishway is not functioning as well as had been expected. Sampling upstream of the weir has shown a distinct reduction in both fish numbers and fish species.

Since 1997, a number of studies have been undertaken to examine options for improving the fishway performance. The outcome of the studies concluded that the installation of a fish lock clearly represented the best means of improving fish transfer performance at the weir.

This paper presents the various options investigated and outlines how the new fish lock will be integrated into the existing weir structure.

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2004 Papers

2004 – Clare Weir Fishway Upgrade
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Errol Beitz

Clare Weir, completed in 1978, is situated on the Burdekin River some 50 kms from the mouth near Ayr in North Queensland.

A fish ladder was built on the right bank as part of the original construction but observations of the fishway’s performance over a number of years and more recently by the Queensland Fisheries Service (QFS) have established that the fishway is not functioning as well as had been expected. Sampling upstream of the weir has shown a distinct reduction in both fish numbers and fish species.

Since 1997, a number of studies have been undertaken to examine options for improving the fishway performance. The outcome of the studies concluded that the installation of a fish lock clearly represented the best means of improving fish transfer performance at the weir.

This paper presents the various options investigated and outlines how the new fish lock will be integrated into the existing weir structure.
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2017 Papers

2017 – Can They Jump Puddles? A Discussion of the Design Features of a Weir to Limit Impacts on Aquatic Species
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Lesa Delaere, Dr Natalie Clark, Dr Shayan Maleki

Waterway barriers, such as dams and weirs, have the potential to impact aquatic fauna species through the restriction of fauna movement and direct injury and mortality of individuals. Without suitably designed aquatic fauna passages and features to minimise injury and mortality, these barriers may adversely affect the viability of local and regional populations, through disruption to critical behaviours (e.g. breeding, dispersal).

The Lower Fitzroy River Infrastructure Project comprises of two weirs on the Fitzroy River in central Queensland. Two threatened turtle species, the Fitzroy River turtle and the white-throated snapping turtle, and a range of fish species needed consideration of species-specific requirements and development of targeted design solutions.

This paper discusses the ecological needs of these species as well as features incorporated into the design to reduce the impact of the weirs. The design incorporated modular fishlocks, gate, spillway and stilling basin features, an innovative turtle passage, special considerations for outlets and operational aspects. The design was further subject to complexity due to the variation in river flows, zero flow to approximately 9,000m3/sat bank full, and needed to account for a wide range of operational scenarios with respect to the species impacts.The paper also includes a discussion on computational fluid dynamics modelling (CFD) which was used to validate the design of fish passage structures.
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2021 Papers

2021 – A tale of two sites, siting optimal fish passage location at Ewen Maddock Dam
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Lindsay Millard, David T Roberts, Steven Cox, Andrew Berghuis, Anna Hams

Addressing historical impacts of waterway barriers on regional fisheries values is a major focus for fisheries regulators when assessing proposed water infrastructure projects such as dam safety improvements. To inform prudent investment decisions, it is essential to quantitatively determine the feasibility and benefits of various fish passage options to mitigate barrier effects. In Queensland, the regulatory frameworks require consideration of multiple options to achieve mitigation with the overarching goal to support and restore regional fish productivity. Addressing multiple objectives on large water infrastructure projects can be challenging, particularly for existing assets requiring retrofit solutions. There is a need to balance the requirements for dam safety, water supply reliability, while also mitigating the loss of fish habitat access upstream of barriers. Finding optimal fish passage solutions requires consideration of multiple options and using objective approaches that can weigh up the many aspects. The best solution may not always be the most obvious. Here we describe an approach that addresses multiple objectives through a novel off-site solution that provides increased benefit to the impacted fish community. Seqwater, Queensland,

The approach involved weighing up various fish passage options, informed by stochastic hydrologic
modelling to produce a range of probabilistic scenarios. 120 years of modelled water levels and discharges from the study site and the broader catchment, enabled an evaluation of the benefits and dis-benefits of different options in relation to dam safety, water supply reliability and fish migration opportunities. Inputs to the assessment process included fish habitat availability and migratory needs, capital and operational feasibility considerations. Numerous modelling scenarios were produced to assess a range of possible solutions, both on and off-site, to provide an objective weighting of the relative strengths of each scenario.

In this instance, while an onsite option could be feasibly engineered, it would be costly and given the
hydrology of the system, would operate so infrequently as to provide limited opportunities for fish passage and minimal regional fisheries productivity benefits. The optimal solution found was to provide fish passage on a higher order stream within the same catchment area that has impacted fish migration and access to upstream habitats for the same fish community. This option improves fish habitat access to a larger proportion of the catchment and over a wide range of flow conditions, thus providing greater regional fisheries productivity outcomes.

Our method demonstrated an objective approach to balancing multiple project objectives for dam
improvements. The use of hydrologic modelling combined with fish migration and habitat information, found an optimal solution for regional fisheries productivity goals, while also balancing the dam safety and water supply reliability goals.
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2008 Papers

2008 – Implementing upstream fish passage at an existing large dam: Hinze Dam trap and haul fishway
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Steven O’Brien, Brent Mefford, John Harris

Abstract: The Hinze Dam Stage 3 Upgrade required ‘Waterway Barrier Works Approval’, including fish-passage assessments. The dam, sited in the Nerang River catchment, has relatively undisturbed riverine habitat upstream which, together with the reservoir’s recreational fishery, was a key driver for inclusion of a fishway. Low outflows from the dam and impacts of development on the river downstream contrast starkly with upstream environments.

The Hinze Dam Alliance (HDA) assessed that upstream transfer of fish will have significant environmental benefits but downstream passage, beyond that achieved during spill events, could not be justified.

Constraints at the site for upstream passage include unvarying 7.25ML/d releases from the reservoir and a distance of nearly 300m between the reservoir and the downstream river pool. HDA has developed an innovative trap-and-haul system to collect upstream-migrating fish near the spillway and transport them by tanker to upstream release areas. This system is the first of its kind designed for Australia. It provides flexibility to accommodate varying fish biomass, the ability to operate over a range of flows up to 20-year ARI events, facilities for data collection and removal of pest species, and capacity to manage predation with small-fish refuges during trapping and transfer and by releasing fish at several protected sites in the reservoir.

Keywords: fishway, trap and haul System, fish passage
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2010 Papers

2010 – Bowen River Weir Fishway – Design and Construction
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David Scriven, Errol Beitz, Aaron Elphinstone

The Bowen River Weir is located at AMTD 94.4 km on the Bowen River, some 25 km south of Collinsville in North Queensland. The weir is part of the Bowen/Broken Rivers Water Supply Scheme and it provides a pumping pool for pipelines serving two nearby coal mining developments and a power station, and also acts as a regulator for riparian water users downstream until it meets the Burdekin River.
The weir was constructed in 1982 and incorporated a fishway towards the southern (left) bank, the design of which was based on the old “pool and weir” fish ladder type layout, typical of that era, with 48 separate cells containing partial vertical slots and baffles. This design has since been found to be ineffective for Australian native fish. In addition it was often out of service due to cells becoming filled with river sediment and debris. For these reasons it was decommissioned and made safe in late 2008 on the condition that a new fishway be constructed.
In late 2008 agreement was reached with Fisheries Queensland to install a “fish lock” type fishway at the site. This type of fishway has in recent years proved to be reliable and effective (eg. successful fish locks at Neville Hewitt and Claude Wharton Weirs). The preliminary and then final design was undertaken by SunWater (Infrastructure Development) between September 2008 and March 2009. The construction was undertaken by SunWater direct management, commencing in July 2009 and completed in late 2010.

Bowen River Weir Fishway – Design and Construction
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2011 Papers

2011 – Burrum Weir Fishway – Fish Biology and River Flows: Two Faces
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Lesa Delaere, Ivor Stuart, Thomas Ewing, David Marsh

As part of Wide Bay Water’s commitment to minimising environmental impacts of its water supply weirs, a “Nature Like” Fishway is under development for the Burrum No 1 Weir. This project is a fishway offset provision for the raising of Lenthalls Dam in the upper reaches of the Burrum River in Hervey Bay. The Burrum No 1 weir forms the primary pumping pool for the Hervey Bay water supply and is located at the tidal limit of the Burrum River. Understanding fish biology and behaviour is critical to the effectiveness of the design of a fishway as much as the balance between the goals of maximising fish passage versus cost, construction and operational difficulties that a fish passage solution may present.

This paper presents the aquatic ecology of the project and the inter-relationship of fish biology and river flow frequency. It discusses the fish species of the Burrum River, their behaviour, seasonal migration and criteria for successful passage. It presents the analysis of river flows with respect to frequency and headwater/tailwater relationships to weir drownout, which was complicated by the tidal flow regimes downstream of the weir. These aspects were also applied in consideration of river behaviour; low flow characteristics for fishway operation during dry seasons and drought, and high flow characteristics during the wet season and floods.

The biological needs for successful fish passage for two very different river flow characteristics were analysed. This allowed targeted design criteria and fishway solution to be developed to provide maximum benefit without causing undue cost to the project.

Burrum Weir Fishway – Fish Biology and River Flows: Two Faces
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