Con Dacey and his wife with a healthy-sized cod caught at Wagga. Photo: Museum of the Riverina (Passlow collection).
Have you ever been fishing in the Wagga LGA?
If so, you may have been fortunate enough to have encountered a Murray cod.
The Murray cod is one of Australia’s greatest freshwater species, a long-lived large fish with records of captured specimens topping 110 kg (242 lbs).
They are believed to live beyond 50 years, with the oldest accurately recorded at 48.
According to legend, some Murray cod grew so big they could swallow a calf whole!
After European settlement, they soon became part of the staple diet for many inland regions, with countless numbers finding themselves on dinner tables via a variety of fishing methods.
In her 1933 memoir Old Days: Old Ways, Dame Mary Gilmore wrote extensively of the Aboriginal tribes’ traditional use of the land and lamented the destruction of what she called “native sanctuaries”.
In the chapter Fish Balks and Traps, she described a complex management system that ensured areas were not overfished and the larger fish were excluded from breeding areas where they might consume smaller fish.
She detailed the use of carefully constructed stone-and-timber fish traps along the Murrumbidgee, similar to the last remaining example in Brewarrina, which were destroyed to make way for paddle steamers and dams to water stock.
Wollundry Lagoon once brimmed with fish.
“I remember once we caught fish there in a tub. The Lagoon was a mass of fish,” she recalled.
“But when the white man killed the black this plenty ended.
“There were no sanctuaried areas; no close season for breeding; no selection in net fishing; … and the once plentiful breeding diminished.”
An illustration from Old Days: Old Ways by Mary Gilmore, a watercolour by Robert Avitabile.
In April 1937, Mayor H. McDonough convened a public meeting with the object of forming a society for the protection and restoration of the Murray cod.
Sadly, the lack of restrictions and overfishing had greatly depleted their numbers.
The principal objects of the society were the abolition of nets, cross lines and set lines from the streams inhabited by the Murray cod, the restoration of cod to the rivers of the Riverina, and to assist in enforcing the laws in relation to Murray cod fishing.
In June 1947, the Wagga Wagga Express reported on a man landing a 35 lb (15 kg) Murray cod using an ordinary line and hook, which cost him 9d.
The fish, which was exhibited at the White Rose Cafe, was 39 in (99 cm) long and had a girth of 34 inches (86 cm).
The fish shown here was caught on a line by Con Dacey, seen here with his wife, who stands ready (already in her apron) to no doubt turn it into a tasty meal.
she also appears to be wearing a pair of cosy slippers
We have very little information about the Daceys, but apparently, Con was one of Wagga’s well-known Communists.
Image and information supplied by the Museum of the Riverina (Passlow collection).
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