It was a combination of mission accomplished and perfect timing when a program to eradicate ‘noxious’ fish from a dam at Mt Lambie was carried out on Friday.

Targeted in the eradication were redfin that had been discovered recently in a dam on a grazing property.

The blitz involved the Fisheries division of the State Department of Industry and Investment and was initiated after the redfin were discovered by members of the Central Acclimatisation Society.

The redfin are an introduced species that are regarded as an invasive pest that destroys other marine life including trout.

They are also prolific breeders and, ominously, carry the marine virus EHN that could be passed on to other fish.

How the noxious fish came to be in the farm dam is unknown but authorities suspect that boys fishing there had brought them from Bathurst’s Chifley Dam where they are a major infestation.

Concerns were amplified by the fact that the farm dam was close to a watercourse leading into the Coxs River catchment.

The dam has in the past apparently been a popular waterhole for the pursuit of yabbies.

Senior Scientist with the department, Dean Gilligan, said the Mt Lambie operation had been a success.

He said the dam had been completely drained and a large number of yabbies relocated to another dam.

Literally thousands of dead redfin were removed, most of them a fairly small example.

“It was good timing because we had no sooner finished the operation than it began to rain to start re-filling the dam,” Mr Gilligan said.

He said survey teams had checked out Wallerawang’s Lake Wallace and the Coxs River without finding any trace of redfin.

A follow up survey will be conducted in about two months.

Secretary of the Central Acclimatisation Society, Karl Schaerf, expressed satisfaction that the problem had been eliminated.

He said it was an extremely irresponsible action for anyone to introduce feral fish like redfin or European carp into either enclosed or open bodies of water.