THE PARADISE FISHWAY
May 17, 2008
This is the down stream passage entrance for lungfish at Paradise Dam , as you can see the water level last sunday the 11th may was 4 mts below the entrance point , which is the dark slot in the concrete structure . This slot is 300m wide and the dam wall is 400mts long , so you can imagine how diffiult it would be for a lungfish to locate this slot . Even if they did they would have to be able to levitate to aproximately 4 mts to gain entrance . This is because the QLD goverment was determined that the economic performance of the dam would not be compromised by the requirement for them to protect Lungfish , which means that the slot should be located far below the water level to ensure that the lungfish can gain acess to the river downstream .
If they had located the slot at a lower level , they would not have water to use for irrigation , which was the reason that the dam was built , this then substantiates the Conservation sector arguments that , ‘the QLD goverment has not met its conditions of approval for Pradise Dam , which was , that ” the paradise dam must have a fish passage device installed when the dam becomes operational , and it must be suitable for lungfish” ;
