Elected representatives in government are in charge of the policy and funding that can make or break saving threatened species. Their decisions and actions matter.

Ballarat has or used to have 22 threatened animals within its boundaries. One of them is me, the Macquarie Perch.

We took care to attach appropriate images that are as close to representative of each species as our resources and the availability of images allowed. However, we could not ensure perfect accuracy in every case. Some images show species that share the same genus but not at the species or subspecies level.

Macquarie Perch

Macquaria australasica

Status: Endangered

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) lists threatened species under six categories:
Extinct, Extinct in the wild, Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable, Conservation dependent. Read more about these categories

Macquaria australasica is found across 24 electorates.

The Macquarie Perch is a moderate-sized fish with an elongate-oval body which is laterally compressed. The lateral line is obvious and there are conspicuous open pores on the lower jaw. Macquarie Perch have been recorded growing to 46 cm and 3.5 kg within the western distribution of their range, but are distinctly smaller in maximum size at maturity in the eastern distribution of their range where they grow to less than 25 cm and 1.5 kg. In the Murray-Darling Basin the species varies from almost black or dark silvery grey to bluish grey or green-brown above, paler to off-white below, often with a yellowish tinge. In the Shoalhaven and Hawkesbury River systems, fish are usually blotched with grey-brown, buff and dark-greyish over the head and body and can be pale grey-brown when living in shallow sandy streams.¹

Explore more about this species on the Atlas of Living Australia

Adverse fire regimes