Endangered crayfish return home months after Victorian bushfires

In a rugged corner of Victoria's High Country, two scientists are making their way slowly through fire-scarred bushland that is slowly returning to life.

They are travelling with precious cargo: a group of endangered alpine spiny crayfish that are heading back to their home waterway near Lucyvale.

The scientists were here in the immediate aftermath of the January bushfires that tore through the region, and they salvaged 11 endangered crayfish that were at risk of suffocating in the stream from debris and sediment.

The alpine spiny crayfish are restricted in their movement and found in small, isolated pockets that make it tricky for scientists to find, adding to the pressure of rescue efforts as water quality declines after a fire.

"If they aren't rescued they can disappear from these areas," Arthur Rylah Institute senior scientist Will Sowersby said.

The alpine spiny crayfish were taken to the Snobs Creek conservation hatchery, which is run by the Victorian Fisheries Authority near Eildon, where they were cared for until water quality improved post-bushfires.

It is the first time the endangered species has been taken into captivity, and it proved a learning curve for staff.

"It's a new process for us," Snobs Creek's senior conservation hatchery officer Dylan White said.

"They are a bit feisty so we have had to separate them, and we have kept them separate this whole time because they will attack each other."

Giving nature a hand

As the Victorian High Country starts to spring back to life from the Walwa-River Road bushfire that burnt around 121,000 hectares, scientists are continuing to monitor the alpine spiny crayfish's habitat and ponder their future.

Conservationists hope the endangered crayfish can be included in a future captive breeding program at the Snobs Creek hatchery to help bolster numbers and geographical diversity.

But with another summer on the horizon, Mr Sowersby predicts their work is far from over.

"We know that bushfires are increasing in their frequency and their intensity, so we suspect it's going to be more and more important that we rescue species post-bushfire and that we also establish new populations to (prevent) the risk of an extinction event due to a catastrophic fire," he said.

A hub at the hatchery

It has been a busy year for Snobs Creek hatchery staff who carry out important conservation work with vulnerable species, especially after natural disasters.

"Most of these species we have here are so critically endangered they have never been kept in captivity before, so it's really new for everyone," Mr White said.

"The important thing is we are experienced and we are putting that knowledge and skill set towards caring for them and learning more about them."

Some of the species at the facility are found nowhere else in the world.

That includes a special type of galaxias fish that only exists in a sole tributary of the La Trobe River after experiencing a major population collapse in the past decade, and the critically endangered blackfish that were rescued after bushfires tore through the Grampians region.

Some species rescued after Victoria's summer bushfires have already been re-released, including more than 100 Macquarie perch and trout cod taken from Seven Creek after the Longwood bushfire.

"It was quite challenging to look after a large number of trout cod at the same time due to their aggressive nature …took up a lot of space," Snobs Creek head of fish production Chris Mullins said.

The species' stay at the facility can be hard work for staff, who have to manage unique diets, water temperature, lighting, and behavioural issues.

With Australia predicted to face more natural disaster as climate change progresses, staff value the significance of the hatchery.

"Every year (natural disasters) seems to be getting more and more, so we have got to have a facility here that we can take some of these species as quickly as we can," Mr White said.