The Cotter's snow-fed headwaters above Corin Dam, tussock marsh creeks under the Brindabella Range in a catchment where the ACT prohibits fishing at all times.
Save yourself the drive. The Cotter’s headwaters, from the tussock marshes under the Brindabella Range down to Corin Dam, sit inside a catchment where the territory prohibits fishing at all times.
It is the source country of the river: creeks draining tussock marshland, fed by snow off the range, gathering into a stream that Corin Dam holds back. The closure covers everything above Bendora Dam wall, so it takes in this stretch, Corin Dam, and the river between the two reservoirs.
The nearest open water on the Cotter starts downstream at the Bendora Dam wall: the ACT lists the river from there to the Condor Creek junction as Trout Waters, open in season. That stretch has its own page. Do not come up here with a rod.
Fish in this water
Each fish is rated by its strongest evidence. A rating says how sure we are a fish is here, not how many there are, whether it is worth fishing for or whether you may keep it.
Likely
Older records here, recent stocking, a local guide or fly shop, a guide listing, or recent records on connected water nearby.
The mapped headwaters run from the source to where the river enters Corin Dam. The gradient profile shows how steeply this upper river falls. Early in the season the snowmelt runs it heavy and icy.
BANK COVER ALONG THIS REACH · SATELLITE-CLASSIFIED, 2023–25
Open woodland
Sparse trees
Native grass & tussock
Cultivated
Regulations
The Cotter River and its catchment upstream of Bendora Dam wall, including Bendora and Corin reservoirs, are Prohibited Waters under the ACT’s recreational fishing rules. Fishing is not allowed at any time. Check the current ACT recreational fishing guide before you fish anywhere on the Cotter.
Prohibited
ACT
Fishing is banned at all times in five named ACT areas: the Cotter River above Cotter Dam wall to the Condor Creek junction (including the Cotter Reservoir); the Cotter River and catchment above Bendora Dam wall (including Bendora and Corin Reservoirs); the Murrumbidgee River from Angle Crossing down to the Gudgenby River junction; the Tidbinbilla River and catchment inside the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve; and Kellys Swamp and Jerrabomberra Swamp inside the Jerrabomberra Wetlands Nature Reserve.
ACT Government (Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate / City and Environment Directorate), citing the Fisheries Act 2000
Fishing is not allowed at any time in the ACT's listed prohibited waters. On the Cotter River that is two separate stretches: the river upstream of the new Cotter Dam wall as far as the junction with Condor Creek, including Cotter Reservoir; and the river and its catchment upstream of Bendora Dam wall, including Bendora and Corin Reservoirs. The Cotter between the Condor Creek junction and Bendora Dam is not prohibited water: the ACT lists it as Trout Waters, open in season under the trout-water rules. The same list closes the Murrumbidgee River downstream of Angle Crossing to its junction with the Gudgenby River, and the Tidbinbilla River and its catchment within the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve.
ACT Government (Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate / City and Environment Directorate)
Open Waters are every public water in the ACT that is not a Prohibited Water or a Trout Water. The brochure also names four Open Water reaches: the Murrumbidgee River downstream from its junction with the Gudgenby River, and separately the Murrumbidgee River upstream from the concrete crossing at Angle Crossing to the ACT/NSW border (the reach between those two points, from Angle Crossing downstream to the Gudgenby junction, is a Prohibited Water, not Open Water); the Molonglo River downstream of its junction with the ACT/NSW border; the Cotter River below Cotter Dam; and urban lakes and ponds.
ACT Government (Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate / City and Environment Directorate), citing the Fisheries Act 2000
ACT Trout Waters are: the Gudgenby, Naas, Paddys and Orroral Rivers and their tributaries in full; Condor Creek and its tributaries; the Cotter River between Bendora Dam and the Condor Creek junction; and the Molonglo River between the Queanbeyan River junction and the ACT/NSW border.
ACT Government (Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate / City and Environment Directorate), citing the Fisheries Act 2000
The river here runs through Namadgi National Park. Whatever the park allows for walking, fishing is prohibited on this stretch, so there is no angler access to describe.
Ways in
Where roads, tracks and paths reach the water, from mapped roads. Not a right of entry: check gates, land tenure and closures.
Occurrence records do not establish present abundance or angling suitability. Counts are records, not fish. Environmental DNA indicates a detection in water, not a captured fish.
These records fall inside the mapped waterbody or within 250 m of a mapped waterway. Records with stated positional uncertainty above 1 km were excluded; some included locations have unstated uncertainty.
2003–2024 · 19 records · Cotter River as a whole; not specific to this reach
Backpack electrofishing (7) · Other electrofishing (2) · Unstated or other method (10)
Data: NatureMapr (CC-BY 3.0 (Au)); Sustainable Rivers Audit (CC-BY-Int); Australian Museum provider for OZCAM (CC-BY 3.0 (Au)); South Australian Museum Adelaide provider for OZCAM (CC-BY); Encyclopedia of Life Images - Flickr Group (CC-BY 4.0 (Int))