Re-snagging at Banrock Station
Re-snagging works were completed at Banrock Station in April 2025 , involving the installation of repurposed felled tree trunks (snags) into the river to provide juvenile fish with new habitat to grow and thrive.
Re-snagging works were completed at Banrock Station in April 2025 , involving the installation of repurposed felled tree trunks (snags) into the river to provide juvenile fish with new habitat to grow and thrive.
Snags create favoured habitat for a range of riverine animals, particularly native fishes, and typically consist of fallen native tree limbs, trunks or root masses to create critical in-stream woody habitat.
Building on 20 snags previously installed near Banrock Station Wetland in 2019, 6 additional snag piles were placed further upstream to provide more complexity for large-bodied native fish species to build new habitat.
Trees for the project were sourced through Murray Bridge Council’s Community Flood Recovery and installed close to the riverbank then secured in place using timber pins fashioned out of thin, native trees and chiselled into a point to anchor the snags into the bank.
Juvenile fish are expected to take to the structures quickly, with future monitoring and surveys planned to gain baseline data.
The Department for Environment and Water has successfully installed snags at Banrock Station Wetland, Overland Corner and Bookpurnong, with plans to undertake re-snagging at Bookmark Creek later in 2025.