Mulloka in the tank at Snob's Creek Visitor's Centre in Victoria where he was imprisoned for 12 years.
This is a view of the camp from the boat, around the time of the capture of Mulloka in 1987 from the Oven's River. This murky brown water is Mulloka's river home. It is very different from the tiny tank where he was kept for public display at Snob's Creek Visitor's Centre.
Ray Donald collecting broodstock with a drum net. A drum net was the tool used to capture Mulloka.
Mulloka is aboriginal for 'water-devil' or 'water-spirit.' The Murray Cod is the spirit of Australia's inland rivers and waterways.
After capture Mulloka was weighed and transfered from a closed off dam to the tiny tank at Snob's Creek Visitor's Centre where he remained for 12 years.
This kind of disruption from of Mulloka from his natural environment is invasive and cruel and would have resulted extreme trauma to the fish. How could Mulloka know that he would survive such an event?
Whilst imprisoned at Snob's Creek Visitor's Centre Mulloka had no company, no river current to swim in, no sunshine and no ecosystem. This sad and cruel exhibit is not the way a Murray Cod is meant to live. The tank is said to be worth about $60,000. This money could have gone into public education about endangered or threatened cod or into making a sanctuary for native fish along a large section of river.
Rod Cheetham (an employee) removing Mulloka from the pool where he will be transfered and placed in a small tank inside the Snob's Creek Visitor's Centre.
Entrance to the Snob's Creek Visitor's Centre (now called The Freshwater Discovery Centre) where we discovered an imprisoned fish in stale tank water. Once Mulloka was released the centre replaced him with a smaller Murray Cod. This unfortunate fish is now imprisoned in the same tank on public display.
I became very attached to Mulloka over a period of two years and swore that I would not give up on him until he was back where he belonged, which was in his natural river environment.
Mulloka is a 30 kilogram Murray Cod estimated to be between 20-25 years old. In the wild Murray cod can live to 100 years and the largest ever caught weighed more than 100 kilograms.
When we forceably remove an animal from the wild in order to tame and train, we take away that animal's sense of purpose and survival. Freedom is the greatest gift we can give to those whom we love. In order to truly educate ourselves, we must relinquish our attempts at control over nature and simply allow an animal to be.
While Mulloka lived in solitary confinement at the Visitor's Centre he was unable to fulfill the natural behavioural patterns of a Murray Cod. The tank was almost the exact width of the fish from back-to-front, so when Mulloka faced into the Centre, he was forced to adopt a slight angle. In the wild Murray Cod may form social groups, and have been known to swim 350 km up river during the breeding season.9
Rod Cheetham (an employee at the Centre) feeding introduced fish (adult trout) to be released into Australian rivers. After leaving the Snob's Creek Vistor's Centre, which is meant to be an educational facility, we are left to consider tanks full of native fish and waterways full of introduced fish.
Alex Caughey (an employee at the Centre) laughs at Mulloka in the tiny tank.
In the wild Mulloka would wait for prey to pass and select his food and for territorial reasons, he would jump out and snatch his food. This could be anything from up to a five or a ten foot grab and there might be a chase involved. Mulloka could barely move five to ten inches inside this tiny tank.
Alex McCaughey who talked about Mulloka on several occasions saw nothing wrong with using fish for educational purposes, even if it meant sacrificing the animal's well being.
At the Visitor's Centre, there is no natural environment, no muddy embankment, no hole or shelter for hiding in and under, no river current, no migration, no sunshine, no natural diet and no company. A fish tank is not an ecosystem.
I noticed that Mulloka had two very large scars on his right side. When I asked how Mulloka got these scars, Alex Caughey said that he had impaled himself on the fake branches inside the tank whilst chasing the small fish (baby brown or rainbow trout) that they put in there for him to eat.
Nicki Booker's hands against the glass of the tiny tank. At times it seemed that we were never going to get Mulloka out of there.
Opposite from the tank where Mulloka was kept is the filthy overcrowded fish handling tank, which was full of injured and dying fish - a real educational experience.
While at the centre Nicki Booker and I witnessed unsupervised children engaging in "fish-fights" by throwing the small fish at each other. Would you really want to stick your hand into that water?
After a two year campaign Mulloka was finally released on Tuesday 1st September, 1998. Mulloka was set free into Lake Eildon and the Golburn River in north eastern Victoria, which is a large artificial impoundment consisting of a series of major flooded valleys of the major tributaries of the upper Golburn systems.
I spoke to Geoff Gooley (MAFRI) who assured me that Mulloka was indeed released with no identification, no tagging transmitter and with no services required.
Mr Gooley said that it was "not appropriate to tag him. "I can only hope that the giant inland river fish has not been caught again, because as long as people kill the Murray Cod and attack their habitat, Mulloka and others like him will always be at risk.
At least for now, he has a chance at the life that was denied him, all those years he spent in captivity. This photo showd an inland Australian River with tree root snags.
This is where the Australian Murray Cod live.
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