GOOD on Andrew Hearn and his helpers for once again putting in the hard yards to organise the upcoming annual Carpathon in the Wingecarribee River.
This is turning out to be a terrific event on many levels because not only do participants have a lot of fun catching the carp, but they are ridding the Wingecarribee River of a huge menace by dragging out almost a tonne of the invasive, water-fouling introduced fish in just one weekend.
Last year about 2,500 carp were caught by the 400 registered fishermen and fisherwomen, and you could bet a quid the platypus population was delighted on the Monday morning when they went out to forage for tadpoles.
I LOVE wandering along the Wingecarribee River at Berrima, watching the platypus frolicking, listening to the chirpy bird population and just enjoying the solitude of the bush.
What a wonderful natural asset we have. I am just dirty on my old mate Steve Rosa for telling tourists about the beauty of the river in the Berrima Reserve. Mate, keep this one quiet.
Tell ‘em about Medway, the Big Potato and Bullio if you like, but just pretend that lovely path beside the river isn’t there.
WE can thank the Wingecarribee River for the name of our shire. Back in 1980 a debate raged about what to call the soon-to-be-amalgamated Mittagong, Bowral and former Wingecarribee councils.
From a marketing perspective, tourism operators and many others would have liked the local government area to be called Southern Highlands Shire Council, but back then the elected members decided to stick with Wingecarribee because the river was the one thing the three councils had in common.
There were other reasons to support the name, like the Aboriginal significance, cost savings on existing letterhead and signage as well as a few other parochial considerations, but the clincher was the Wingecarribee River touching all three areas.
ANYWAY we have a mighty good river these days thanks to the hard work of a lot of people since our local council introduced a levy to fund environmental works in 2000.
There have been willow removal programs, massive tree plantings, bush regeneration, weed control and generally heaps of great work done by volunteers, bushcare groups, council staff, government agencies, local business and many others to help restore the river to its former glory.
Well done to all concerned and also those recreational carp fishermen and fisherwomen for doing their bit as well.
WHICH brings us to Dudley, who was lying in bed watching the ceiling spin after having had a few beers with Bob Carter and Chris Cusack at the Berrima Pub.
He suddenly heard a voice from above say, “Dudley, the Earth is soon going to be flooded once again and I want you to build an ark.”
Dudley tried to focus as the voice continued; “But this time I don’t want that stupid caper Noah went on with, trying to catch two of everything.
"Just get as many fish as you can and put them in the ark. Evolution will do the rest to colonise the land when the big flood eventually subsides.”
“What do you mean?” asked Dudley in a daze.
“You’ve read biology books, haven’t you? The fish will inhabit the flooded land and as the water drops, amphibians will evolve then the reptiles, the birds and the mammals. We’ll be back to normal in no time.”
So next morning Dudley designed his Ark - a huge thing to be made from stringybarks on the property, with layer upon layer of glass aquariums.
The Wingecarribee River was full of carp, so there would be no problem filling his boat with fish.
Soon after, he went in to the Wingecarribee Shire Council offices to see Environment and Planning Director Scott Lee for permission to build this huge ark.
Scott had a good look at the drawings then shook his head.
“You don’t need Council approval for this, mate, just built it.”
“Your mob have changed your tune pretty quickly,” said Dudley.
“What do you mean?” asked Scott.
“Well, when I phoned the council a couple of days ago, your town planner said I needed to lodge a development application and a building application as well as seek concurrence from a whole bunch of authorities and the State Government if I wanted to build a multi storey carp ark.”
Email a friend