Of all the sights, smells and sounds of Scrubby Creek, there’s one thing that captures the truly feral nature this inhospitable patch of Lake Macquarie’s environment better than anything else.
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Resting in the mud at the bottom of this murky, stagnant, shopping trolley-infested urban waterway is a creature that can survive for 18 months without a feed.
But when hunger strikes, the short-finned eel is not terribly fussy.
“I’ve seen them eat everything from oranges to ducks. They are also cannibals and will eat each other,” Dr Steven Lucas, a keen angler who works at the University of Newcastle’s Tom Farrell Institute for the environment said.
A rare insight into Scrubby Creek’s underwater inhabitants was gained this week when a resident eel was flushed out when a flash flood swept through the area.
Sadly it appeared the metre-long specimen, which would have weighed about 10 kilograms, died after becoming stranded when the flood water receded.
No one can say for certain how long this eel had resided in the creek for, but the species has been known to live in the same area for up to 20 years.
“I have seen them in Tilligerry Creek up to two and three metres long and as thick as your leg,” Dr Lucas said.
“They are fearsome predators when they attack.”
Females spawn only once but release up to 20 million eggs when they do.
To reach the murky depths of Scrubby Creek the eel would have had to have made its way as a juvenile from Jewells Swamp, about six kilometres away.
“If there is a waterway they will work their way up,” Dr Lucas said.
“They are very resilient and can survive in anything from pristine waterways to three centimetres of muddy water.”
Creek rehab stalls again
A project to urgently upgrade of one of the Lower Hunter’s most degraded waterways has once again been put on hold because of a stand-off between Lake Macquarie Council and Land and Housing.
The council budgeted $500,000 last year to rehabilitate a 250 metre stretch of Scrubby Creek at Windale, with Land and Housing agreeing to contribute $100,000 to the project.
The stretch of bushland, which borders Lake Macquarie Fair shopping centre, is infested with towering noxious weeds.
The heavily eroded watercourse is choked with abandoned shopping trolleys and strewn with plastic pollution washed down from further up the catchment.
The council and the department are presently negotiating to swap ownership of several parcels of land in and around Windale.
Mount Hutton-Windale Residents Action Group member Ray Hinton said the latest delay was difficult to accept for residents who had been campaigning to have the area upgraded for more than a decade.
“It was due to start before the end of last year, then it was delayed until April now it has been put off again,” he said.
Member Susan Foster said it was unfortunate that the environment and the community were suffering because of bureaucracy.
“It’s been going on for more than 20 years,” she said.
In addition to pollution, the inability of water to efficiently pass through the area has made it a significant flooding hazard.
There have been several instances, most recently in 2016, where water from the catchment has flooded homes in nearby Windale.
“It’s getting worse because of all of the development that is going on further up in the catchment around Mt Hutton,” Ms Foster said.
A Lake Macquarie City Council spokeswoman said the council had not received all of the necessary approvals to commence the works as planned.
“The planned works are located on land parcels owned by both Council and the NSW Land and Housing Corporation,” the spokeswoman said.
“The project involves approvals by both parties and council is working with the corporation to finalise this process.”
She said it would not be possible to achieve the desired outcome by commencing the work before the negotiations with the Department of Housing were finalised.
Parliamentary Secretary for the Hunter Scot MacDonald said he had been assured work would commence in September.