{"id":328054,"date":"2025-12-04T21:47:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T21:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/328054\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T21:47:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T21:47:10","slug":"south-australian-golf-course-wetland-is-breeding-site-for-locally-extinct-tiny-native-olive-perchlet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/328054\/","title":{"rendered":"South Australian golf course wetland is breeding site for locally extinct tiny native olive perchlet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Golf courses around the world feature picturesque water ponds as a challenging hazard for players to avoid, but scientists say these permanent wetlands could be key breeding sites for threatened native fish.<\/p>\n

Once found along the Murray Darling Basin but now locally extinct due to habitat loss, the olive perchlet has returned to South Australian waters for the first time since 1983.<\/p>\n

Backed by $50,000 from the South Australian government-supported group Green Adelaide, not-for-profit Nature Glenelg Trust is repopulating the native fish as part of its rewilding program.<\/p>\n

“To be able to bring back a species that has actually been extinct in South Australia for over 40 years is such a huge achievement,” senior freshwater ecologist Dr Sylvia Zukowski said.<\/p>\n

\"Several<\/p>\n

Olive perchlet are also known as glassfish because of their translucent appearance. (Supplied: Green Adelaide)<\/p>\n

She said it was not known if breeding threatened fish by a golf green had been done before, but the artificial wetland at the Glenelg Golf Club, south-west of Adelaide, was perfect.<\/p>\n

It has fringing vegetation and is safe from introduced predators like carp, gambusia and redfin.<\/p>\n

Crucially, the water is clean and permanent.<\/p>\n

“One of the biggest concerns we have with fish is water security,” Dr Zukowski said.<\/p>\n

\"Tiny<\/p>\n

The Glenelg Golf Club wetlands is being used as a breeding site for hundreds of olive perchlet. (Supplied: Green Adelaide)<\/p>\n

Dr Zukowski contributed to research published in 2024 which found 37 per cent of Australian native freshwater fish are at risk of extinction<\/a> \u2014 a threat made worse by climate change.<\/p>\n

While drought conditions empty dams, wetlands like those at the Glenelg Golf Club do not dry out.<\/p>\n

“Last year, we had the largest land drought within the Mount Lofty Ranges. We had dams going dry that haven’t been dry for over 30 years,” Dr Zukowski said.<\/p>\n

“I think the golf club could be a really great part of fish conservation for South Australia and since we’ve done this in South Australia, we’re also looking at it in other states as well.”<\/p>\n

\"Small<\/p>\n

The wetland is a perfect home for the olive perchlet due to its good water quality and fringing vegetation. (Supplied: Green Adelaide)<\/p>\n

Using green spaces for good<\/p>\n

Glenelg Golf Club sprawls across 50 hectares of land, a “fair slab” which course superintendent Tim Warren said golf clubs “have to almost justify”.<\/p>\n

“Golf courses have more to play than just hitting a golf ball around, or LIV golf,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The cooling of the suburb, storm water retention and all the environmental benefits that an open space can bring.”<\/p>\n

The site has attracted pelicans, ducks, grebes, turtles, black cockatoos, magpies, Murray magpies and ibis, while a survey of the constructed wetlands where the olive perchlet now live found Galaxiidae, another native freshwater fish.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Glenelg Golf Club course coordinator Tim Warren is keen to help threatened native fish species. (ABC News: Stephen Opie)<\/p>\n

“We’re not just a space for recreation \u2026 we play a role in environmental stewardship,” Mr Warren said.<\/p>\n

By early next year, the olive perchlet population could grow in the surrogate wetland from 500 to 10,000.<\/p>\n

“We hope to be able to then reintroduce them into other wetlands and maybe even back into the wild one day,” South Australian Environment Minister Lucy Hood said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Golf courses around the world feature picturesque water ponds as a challenging hazard for players to avoid, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,7248,183966,183965,75,84571,183967,183964,9262,75077,2400,183963,13408,128,20628,25131],"class_list":["post-328054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bird","tag-dr-sylvia-zukowski","tag-ecologist","tag-environment","tag-extinct","tag-glenelg-golf-course","tag-glenelg-nature-trust","tag-golf-course","tag-murray-darling-basin","tag-native-species","tag-olive-perchlet","tag-sa-government","tag-science","tag-scientists","tag-wetlands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}