Charles Sturt's diary in 1838, stated "I sent a man to the Northward, who found the country intersected by deep creeks, full of decaying timber".

It's hard to believe that the early explorers are even talking about the same river system we have here in 2016, where native fish numbers have plummeted by 70 per cent to 90 per cent since European settlement.

A sad fact is that in the 1980s, 24,000 snags were removed from the Murray River between the Hume Dam at Albury and Yarrawonga alone, which is a distance of only 200 kilometres.

In the Dubbo region, much de-snagging has also occurred, due to people believing in years gone by that they were "cleaning up" the river by removing and burning snags in the waterway.

Large in-stream snags were also removed for boating purposes, and also due to people believing that removing snags would help the water disperse more quickly in times of flood.

In an effort to turn declining fish numbers around, the Inland Waterways Rejuvenation Association, supported by Dubbo Bush care, has a $60,000 project under way to get critical native fish habitat reinstalled in the Macquarie River in the Wellington, Dubbo and Narromine local government areas.

By installing large hardwood trees, new breeding sites have been created for all native fish in the river system, which will use the snags to breed, feed and shelter.

Funds raised for the project have come through the annual Lake Burrendong Easter Fishing Classic, that is a not-for-profit event run by volunteers, with 100 per cent of proceeds going into repairing local waterways.

This particular project will have about 120 new snags installed in the Macquarie River, in non-obtrusive, low boat traffic areas, where they will become vital homes for our native fish species such as Murray cod, yellowbelly, and the endangered trout cod.

The Inland Waterways committee would like to thank Dubbo Bush care for supporting the project, and all sponsors and competitors at the annual Lake Burrendong Easter Fishing Classic.