Brisbane River cod

The Brisbane River cod was a unique form of Maccullochella cod that occurred naturally in the Brisbane River system, an east coast river system in south east Queensland, Australia.^{[citation needed]} The Brisbane River Cod was known as the Bumgur (meaning blue cod) by the Jinibara people centred in the Kilcoy region and the junction of the Stanley and Brisbane Rivers.^[1] Their exact taxonomic status is not known, but based on several genetic studies it is suspected that Brisbane River Cod were a species intermediate between eastern freshwater cod (Maccullochella ikei) of the Clarence River and Richmond River systems in northern New South Wales and Mary River cod of the Mary River in southern Queensland.

All naturally occurring Maccullochella cod in east coast drainages ultimately originate from Murray cod, Maccullochella peelii that entered an east coast river system, likely the Clarence, via a natural river capture event somewhere between 0.62 and 1.62 million years ago (mean estimate 1.1 million years ago), as estimated by DNA divergence rates.^[2]

Brisbane River cod are extinct, from overfishing, habitat destruction and siltation, and whole-of-catchment scale bushfires and ash fish kills in the 1930s.^[2]

The Brisbane River has now been restocked with Mary River cod from the Mary River system. The Brisbane River, Cod Recovery Project was started in 2020 to re-establish the presence of a Maccullochella apex predator in the catchment. Surveys conducted in 2023 indicate exceptional survivability and growth of fingerlings released.^[3]

References

1. "Brisbane River gets one of its apex predators back: 12,500 cod released". Healthy Land & Water. 16 April 2025.
2. Harrisson, K; Pavlova, A; Gan, H M; Lee, Y P; Austin, C M; Sunnucks, P (17 February 2016). "Pleistocene divergence across a mountain range and the influence of selection on mitogenome evolution in threatened Australian freshwater cod species" (PDF). Heredity. 116 (6): 506–515. Bibcode:2016Hered.116..506H. doi:10.1038/hdy.2016.8. ISSN 1365-2540. PMC 4868273. PMID 26883183.
3. Brisbane Catchment Mary River Cod Monitoring (PDF). Somerset Wivenhoe Fish Stocking Assn (Report). Electrofishing Services. January 2024.

Further reading

• "Eastern Freshwater Cod Recovery Plan". dpi.nsw.gov.au. May 2004.
• Bearlin, A.R.; Tikel, D. (2002). "Conservation genetics of Murray-Darling Basin fish: Silver perch (Bidyanus bidyanus), Murray cod (Maccullochella peelii), and Trout cod (M. macquariensis)". Managing Fish Translocation and Stocking in the Murray-Darling Basin (workshop proceedings), Canberra, 25–26 September 2002 (PDF). Sydney: World Wildlife Fund. ISBN 1-875941-42-8.
• Jerry, Dean R.; Elphinstone, Martin S.; Baverstock, Peter R. (2001). "Phylogenetic Relationships of Australian Members of the Family Percichthyidae Inferred from Mitochondrial 12S rRNA Sequence Data". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 18 (3). Elsevier BV: 335–347. Bibcode:2001MolPE..18..335J. doi:10.1006/mpev.2000.0871. ISSN 1055-7903. PMID 11277628.
• Nock, Catherine J.; Elphinstone, Martin S.; Rowland, Stuart J.; Baverstock, Peter R. (2010). "Phylogenetics and revised taxonomy of the Australian freshwater cod genus, Maccullochella (Percichthyidae)". Marine and Freshwater Research. 61 (9). CSIRO Publishing: 980. Bibcode:2010MFRes..61..980N. doi:10.1071/mf09145. ISSN 1323-1650.
• Rowland, S. J. (30 July 1993). "Maccullochella ikei, an endangered species of freshwater cod (Pisces: Percichthyidae) from the Clarence River system, NSW and M. peelii mariensis, a new subspecies from the Mary River system, Qld". Records of the Australian Museum. 45 (2): 121–145. doi:10.3853/j.0067-1975.45.1993.132. ISSN 0067-1975.