Species · Macquaria australasica
Macquarie Perch
The "Macca" was once a fish people drove to Dartmouth to keep; now it is fully protected everywhere it swims, and the best thing a trout angler can do is know it on sight.
Family
Percichthyidae
Origin
Endemic
Spawns
Oct–Jan (Victoria)
How to tell it
Facts from
VFA — fish species education pages ↗The Macquarie perch is a small, dark, big-eyed native of cool upland rivers, and the older names for it say how it was once seen: the VFA lists mountain perch, black bream, Murray bream, Goulburn bream and silvereye among them. Anglers call it the Macca. It was a fish worth a trip and, the VFA says plainly, good angling and excellent eating.
That is history now. The Macquarie perch is listed endangered under the Commonwealth’s EPBC Act, endangered in New South Wales, and endangered under Victoria’s Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act. The VFA says only a handful of self-sustaining wild populations remain anywhere, in isolated, disconnected waterways. Since 20 December 2023 no Macquarie perch may be taken in any Victorian water, which closed the last two legal fisheries, at Lake Dartmouth and Upper Coliban Reservoir. In New South Wales and the ACT it is already fully protected.
So this is a page about recognition and release. A Macca lives in the same cool, rocky upland rivers trout anglers fish and eats the same insects, so it can come to hand on a trout fly. Know it when it does, keep it wet, and send it home.
The quick read
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Status: endangered nationally and in New South Wales and Victoria; one of seven totally protected fish in the ACT.
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May it be taken? No, anywhere. Release any you catch immediately.
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Size: NSW DPIRD gives Murray-Darling fish up to 46 cm and 3.5 kg; the VFA says most Victorian fish are 35–40 cm and 750 g to 1 kg. Coastal fish are much smaller, usually under 18 cm.
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Look for: a large eye, equal jaws, pores on the snout and around the eye, large scales and a rounded tail.
Range in Australia
NSW DPIRD places the species in the upstream reaches of the Lachlan, Murrumbidgee and Murray systems, and in parts of south-eastern coastal New South Wales including the Hawkesbury-Nepean and Shoalhaven catchments. In Victoria the VFA says it occurs naturally north of the Divide in Murray tributaries; it was introduced to several waters south of the Divide but persists as self-supporting populations only in the Yarra River and the Wannon River.
The VFA calls Lake Dartmouth Victoria’s best population, a big lake fed by shallow spawning streams including the Mitta Mitta River. Adults have been translocated from Dartmouth to Lake William Hovell on the King River and to Lake Eildon, and the VFA reports that stocking and translocation re-established the fish in the Ovens River. In the ACT the Cotter River holds a population; most of its catchment upstream of the new Cotter Dam is closed to all fishing to protect it.
Our water records also list Macquarie perch in the Mitta Mitta (recorded 1973–2019), the Cotter (recorded 2006–2025), the Murrumbidgee (recorded 2003–2015), and stockings in the Snowy River (1987–1992), the Howqua River (1997) and Lake William Hovell (2011). These are records, not fisheries.
Habitat and behaviour
The VFA describes a riverine fish of cool upper reaches that prefers deep holes, and one that does well in a lake only where there are suitable streams to spawn in. NSW DPIRD adds that it lives among plenty of cover: aquatic plants, snags, boulders and overhanging banks.
It feeds by suction. The VFA lists mostly aquatic insects, with some crustaceans and molluscs: much the same menu a trout is working in the same water.
The threats NSW DPIRD lists read like a summary of what happened to upland rivers: dams and weirs blocking movement, cold-water releases that scramble spawning cues, silt smothering the cobble beds the eggs need, and the EHN virus carried by redfin and farmed rainbow trout. It also names competition and predation by redfin, carp, brown trout and rainbow trout.
Confusing species
NSW DPIRD’s features are the ones to learn: an elongated oval body, a large eye, pores on the snout and around the eye, equal jaws, large distinct scales and a rounded tail, in black, silver-grey, blue-grey or green-brown with a paler belly. The VFA adds that the second spine of the anal fin is the longest and that the pelvic fins are often rosy with black edges. Coastal fish are blotched with grey-brown, buff and dark grey.
A golden perch shares the Murray-Darling and the family. The Australian Museum describes it with a concave forehead and a protruding lower jaw, against the Macca’s tapered snout and equal jaws. Small trout cod share the Cotter and other upland water; they are cod-shaped, spotted and have an overhanging upper jaw. If you are unsure, assume Macca and release it.
If you catch one
Keep it in the water. Unhook it there if you can, cut the line close to the mouth if it is deep, and let it swim off under its own power. Victoria’s rule is that an inadvertently caught Macquarie perch must be immediately returned to the water with the least possible damage or injury; the ACT asks the same and asks you to report the capture to Access Canberra; NSW DPIRD asks anglers to report incidental captures and sightings through its threatened species reporting form.
If you keep catching them, move. NSW lists hook-and-line fishing in areas important for the survival of threatened fish as a key threatening process.
Spawning season
The VFA says spawning usually happens in spring or summer, October to January, in water of 16–22 °C, over rock or gravel in flowing water. Eggs hatch in 10 to 18 days. Males can mature at two years and females at three, and a five-year-old fish can be 38 cm. Because breeding needs flowing water, the VFA says the species does well in a lake only where suitable spawning streams feed it.
Rules that apply
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Victoria: taking Macquarie perch is prohibited in all Victorian waters (bag limit of 0) from 20 December 2023, the VFA’s catch-limits page says. It notes that the printed 2023–24 guide wrongly shows a bag limit of one at Lake Dartmouth and two at Upper Coliban Reservoir.
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New South Wales: NSW DPIRD lists the species as endangered under the Fisheries Management Act and says targeting it is illegal; any caught incidentally must be returned promptly, and heavy penalties apply for harming, possessing, buying or selling one.
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ACT: one of seven totally protected fish; it is illegal to target or keep one.
Check the current Victorian Recreational Fishing Guide and NSW DPIRD freshwater rules before you fish.
Frequently asked questions
Can I still keep a Macquarie perch from Lake Dartmouth?
No. The VFA removed the Dartmouth bag limit of one, and the Upper Coliban limit of two, in December 2023. Older printed guides still show them; they are wrong.
Is the Macca coming back?
The VFA has stocked more than 185,000 into Victorian waters and runs a multi-partner captive breeding program. It says the aim is to bring back fisheries for Maccas in the future. For now, every wild fish counts.
Why does a protected fish keep turning up on trout flies?
Because it lives in the same cool upland rivers as trout and eats the same aquatic insects. That is the point of learning it before you fish that water.