Volunteers tidy Delroy Park pond in Dubbo for Olive Perchlet habitat

OzFish Inland Waterways member Matt Hansen rallied 30 volunteers to remove dozens of invasive carp and bag loads of litter from the pond outside Delroy Shopping Centre in Dubbo.

"I saw a heap of rubbish in there and contacted the River Repair bus and said this needs a clean up and they let us know that fisheries had identified the lake as a suitable habitat for Olive Perchlet," he explained.

"The clean up went really well - we got all the rubbish out, the lake was putrid. We got a whole lot of crap out of there."

Shopping trolleys, plastic bottles, plastic bags, Christmas decorations, tennis balls and cricket balls were all pulled out of the water by volunteers, including a contingent of students from the Central West Leadership Academy.

"There were lots of kids who came along and they felt really good being able to help recover an endangered species," Mr Hansen said.

"There's two litter problems we identified, one is that there's stuff coming in through the drainage system and there's also a general littering problem - fast food wrappers and tomato sauce squeezy packets being thrown in there."

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Local Ozfish River Repair Bus team leader Sean Graham braved the cold to swim a net across the lake, catching 252 carp.

"We wouldn't have even scratched the surface, there'd be thousands upon thousands of them in there," said Mr Hansen.

Mr Hansen said the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) has identified the pond as a potential habitat for endangered Olive Perchlet.

Olive Perchlet are a small species of fish native to Murray-Darling drainages in NSW. Olive Perchlet were once widespread throughout the Murray-Darling system of western NSW but are now listed as endangered due to predation by invasive species and habitat loss.

Sam Davis at the NSW DPI - who is leading the recovery effort - came along to the clean up on the day to educate volunteers on the fish and what needs to be done to protect them.

"While we always get excellent support from recreational anglers from Inland Waterways Rejuvenation Association and OzFish to help out whenever there is a 'call to arms', a whole cross-section of the community was there to help transform a council storm water basin into a home 'fit for a fish'," said Ms Davis.

"This is just the first step and we hope to maintain the level of enthusiasm in the community for the Olive Perchlet's future."

Mr Graham thanked volunteers for their effort on the day.

"Belated thanks to all volunteers who helped make the Delroy Pond cleanup a success," he said.

"Especially Matthew Hansen for rallying the Ozfish Dubbo and Inland Waterways fishos, NSW DPI Fisheries and Emelia Hosking for bringing along some Central West Leadership Academy muscle!"

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