Snowy River Entrance @ Marlo

[Whiskers]

Just a heads up to anyone venturing down this way.

As of yesterday the Snowy River Entrance @ Marlo has sanded over and the entrance is closed.

The last time this happened was at Easter this year and with the estuary levels rising to the point of inundating low lying farmland the entrance was artificially opened by diggers and bulldozers in early May.

Now that the bar has closed again water levels in the estuary will slowly rise and in a month or so the Snowy and Brodribb Rivers will gradually inundate farmland again. When this happens Parks and Gippsland Ports will probably artificially open the entrance again.
The bar has been closing for the last few months due to low flow levels and the recent strong winds along the coast have piled up the sand at the entrance.

What we really need though is rain. Bucketfulls of it. The river is in dire need of a good flush which if big enough would force an opening through the bar to the sea again, but the likelyhood of good rain is probably just wishful thinking.
If the rain does come the estuary will be very dirty as all the debris from the bushfires in the area will be washed into the river systems.

There is no fishing report with this post. I'm deep into house renovations right now and the fishing has taken a back seat but from what I hear the fishing has been picking up in recent weeks after a quiet spell in early spring. Some good bream and luderick are about.

[rb85]

Whiskers is the closing of the entrance now a common occurrence? Have projects that have dammed the water midway through last century caused 50years of unnatural sand build up?

Im not very familiar with this waterway but am interested in the effect of the drought on this once great waterway?

[Whiskers]

"Whiskers is the closing of the entrance now a common occurrence? Have projects that have dammed the water midway through last century caused 50years of unnatural sand build up? "

You've hit the nail right on the head.

The damming of the Snowy and water diversion to the Murray has seen the flow rates in the Snowy drop to not much more than 12% of the water flow the river used to get. The river is silted up to buggery.

Snowy Hydro do ocaisional water releases in an effort to simulate the flood events that used to happen during the spring snow melts but it's never enough. The whole issue is a big political football. There is a long term goal to try and restore flow rates up to 25% of the original flow but they fall woefully short, year in and year out. It's not just politics but also involves money.

Pre the damming of the Snowy the river was navigable right up to Orbost by ocean going boats. Now, in places, you would struggle to get up the river in a kayak.

There's a ton of information on the net about the whole situation.

[cobby]

Whiskers is the closing of the entrance now a common occurrence? Have projects that have dammed the water midway through last century caused 50years of unnatural sand build up?

Im not very familiar with this waterway but am interested in the effect of the drought on this once great waterway?

Put it this way, Mackillops Bridge in the Deddick Valley (close to the border) was wiped out just prior to opening in the 30s before being rebuilt. That was a decent flood on the then large Snowy, to do the same now would require 20+m height of rushing flood water. The 16 or so km of silt between the highway bridge and upstream wouldn't exist.
This picture I took just north of Orbost in 2011 is after 15mm of rain at Gelantipy 18 hours prior. If the Snowy hydro scheme was never built, I'd be dead, under 3 or more metres of water and my car that's out of shot to the right, a Subaru liberty wouldn't have any part of it above water.

And all that, is with increased environmental flows from Jindabyne above the 4% the Snowy suffered with for decades....

[4liters]

I wonder if any of the nuffies ever look to what happened to the Snowy whenever they talk about what a great idea the Bradfield scheme would be?

[rb85]

It would be amazing to see images of it in all it's former glory.

[IFISHALOT]

It would be amazing to see images of it in all it's former glory.

It was amazing to see trawlers tied up at the Jetty inside and they would fish outside from there. Something that defintly couldnt be done now

[IFISHALOT]

Whiskers is the closing of the entrance now a common occurrence? Have projects that have dammed the water midway through last century caused 50years of unnatural sand build up?

Im not very familiar with this waterway but am interested in the effect of the drought on this once great waterway?

It was closed most of the year around 20 years ago for many years and it fished extremely well as there was more water in Lake Corringle and Frenchs Narrows then so you could fish most areas in those locations. In the past 15 years or so with a small environmental flow it has remained open but only just and these areas have become very shallow with only limited spots to fish, which in turn has put more pressure on these areas.


As mentioned before it need tonnes of sand removed to bring it back to something like its former glory which sadly i dont think we will ever see

[re-tyred]

It some ways it may be better off if it remained closed most of the time. It would turn it into a larger version of lake tyers, bemm, tamboon, etc. Only way you can maintain a brackish water environment is to either have more fresh or less salt.

[Tackleberry]

It some ways it may be better off if it remained closed most of the time. It would turn it into a larger version of lake tyers, bemm, tamboon, etc. Only way you can maintain a brackish water environment is to either have more fresh or less salt.

I agree I have seen many changes here in paynesville since they started hopper dredging at lakes and the only positive ones are the kingfish and lack of carp in the rivers some have even cought sting rays up the river as far as bairnsdale .