Saint Peters Billabong.
Loaded up with fishing gear to do some stalking, the walk started from River Street, North of Saint Peters Billabong. It is a magical little place that i love to visit.
The water was a little green, and no fishing signs and no swimming signs are now posted in the area because of the water pollution.
The area is great for seeing some urban wildlife, and some fun animal encounters can be had.
Moving on from the billabong to the river, we started our hike. The water was coloured but we could see fish of around 2 – 3 kg swimming in the shallows. Enthusiastically we moved on, the main weir being our destination.
However, it wasn’t long before it became obvious this was going to be a difficult fishing trip. The river quickly changed colour to bright green and looked like something from a Saint Patrick ’s Day parade, most likely caused by an algae bloom because of all the pollutants in the river.
This went on for a few kilometres and the rubbish collection started.
Hoping that the water would become clearer, we pushed on, to Sir Douglas Nichols Bridge approx 2km into the walk where a sign identified our destination as a 6.4km return walk from that point, so the total walk would be around 10km.
The water remained green for another kilometre or so before clearing
As the water cleared, the wildlife was also back in focus.
But there was still a lot of rubbish in the river.
We reached our destination around noon, only to find surveillance cameras and do not enter signs posted. From the weir, it looked like the green was spreading. With fishing completely blown, we set off for the 5km walk back to Saint Peters Billabong.
We did stop off for a little bit of fishing on our return journey.
Looking like fishing hobos with our bags of rubbish, we arrived back at the billabong around 4pm with only a small catfish around 2kg captured.
At least someone thought it funny, this guy was laughing in the trees.
Hope you enjoyed the pictures, we could have collected enough rubbish to fill a skip, i guess a couple of bags is a start.