On the banks of Narrabri Creek, carp filling a rusty truck rot in the morning sun. The stench is overwhelming; muddy and salty despite being hundreds of kilometres from the ocean.
The 16th annual Namoi Carp Muster in Narrabri is in full swing. It is one of the biggest weekends of the year for the town of 5,500 people, located 530km north-west of Sydney. Fishing starts at sunrise and the truck fills as the day heats up, reaching 36.5C on Saturday afternoon.
Carp awaiting disposal at the Namoi Carp Muster.
There are more than 500 people fishing along the banks, ranging from children with their families to lone, serious fishers. They’re all angling for a catch that fishers usually try to avoid.
European carp (Cyprinus carpio) were introduced to Australia in the late 1800s. The highly reproductive fish quickly spread throughout eastern and southern river systems, outcompeting native fish and devastating water quality. Carp can breed so rapidly that water oxygen levels decrease, leading to mass fish kills.
In Australian waterways, carp is public enemy number one. Official estimates place the number of carp in Australia between just below 200 million in an average rainfall year and 357 million in a wet year. There is a $15m government plan to infect carp with a herpes virus to control numbers.
In some areas, particularly in the Murray-Darling Basin, carp represent 80-90% of the fish population, says Dr Francisca Samsing Pedrals, a senior lecturer in aquatic animal health at the University of Sydney.
We know we’re never going to eradicate them fully, they breed so prolifically
The president of the Narrabri Amateur Fishing Club, Jamie Charlton, on the banks of the Narrabri Creek.
“Carp are the perfect invasive species,” she says.
Carp musters like Narrabri, which aim to catch as many carp as possible, may make a temporary dent on the local population, but the fish breed prolifically.
“Our waterways are already degraded, so this is just another thing that contributes to a very degraded water system affecting many aspects of our lives,” Pedrals says.
Narrabri amateur fishing club president, Jamie Charlton, says carp are noxious pests.
Narrabri Creek, the site of the Namoi Carp Muster.
“We know we’re never going to eradicate them fully, they breed so prolifically,” he says.
Carp numbers in the Namoi River system, which the Narrabri Creek feeds into, skyrocketed after catastrophic flooding in 2022.
“When the rivers rise and flood, carp come in from billabongs and the little dams,” Charlton says. “It’s not an ideal species to have in the water system, but we make the best out of a bad situation for a good weekend.”
Charlton thinks carp musters, small though they are, are a safer method for reducing numbers than the release of the herpes virus, which would kill a lot of fish at once. “The clean-up is just going to be too big,” he says. “There’s limited time to get the carp out, otherwise, you’ll get a blackwater event and we’ll kill off the native fish too.”
‘The kids understand the damage’
In previous years, carp caught at the muster have been frozen and taken to a nearby fish farm to be ground into food for native yellowbelly and cod that could then be reintroduced to the Narrabri Creek and Namoi River. But their freezers are still full after a record 2.6 tonnes of carp were mustered last year, so this year’s haul is going to the local landfill.
Native fish fingerlings will be released after the muster ends.
Top: Sam Caley caught the first carp of the day, weighing just over 300g. He travelled from Lightning Ridge for the event.
Bottom: Fishers navigate the Narrabri Creek.
Among the fishers standing knee-deep in the Narrabri Creek are Allan and Chloe Whitmore. Last year they caught 78 carp. Chloe speaks to Guardian Australia as Allan fishes, catching 10 carp in as many minutes. Their children are fishing too, baiting hooks with canned corn – the bait of choice for carp.
“The kids really understand what we’re here to do, that the fish are doing damage to the waterways,” she says. “They think it’s absolutely awesome when they release yellowbelly and cod [fingerlings] at the end and realise in the future, this is what they need to do.”
Also mustering are high school students Ben Taylor and Blake Herden, who are hoping to catch “at least 50” carp. They have secured a prime fishing spot.
They are hoping to win one of the prizes – either the kayak or the small “tinnie” fishing boat.
Top: Ben Taylor (left) and Blake Herden fish under a bridge over Narrabri Creek.
Bottom: Allan Whitmore caught 10 fish in 10 minutes from his kayak. He and his family have been taking part in the carp muster for ‘around 16 years’.
“I’m doing the casting competition, so hopefully I’ll win the kayak,” Ben says.
On Sunday morning, with 2.3 tonnes of carp caught, Charlton awards the prizes. Ben didn’t win the kayak. That went to Harper Gillies, a junior fisher who also caught the biggest fish among the younger competitors, with a carp weighing 5kg. The biggest fish of the weekend, at 5.4kg, was caught by Jaxon Davies.
A spokesperson for the federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry says carp management is an important “environment and social amenity issue” and research into the potential use of the cyprinid herpesvirus 3 was still progressing.
“Management of carp numbers is complex because our river networks are large and diverse, which can make physical extraction methods difficult.”
