30 – Recovery of the red-finned blue-eye^377Case study: red-finned blue-eye at Edgbaston Reserve,
Queensland
The red-finned blue-eye (Fig. 30.1) was discovered in 1990, in Great Artesian Basin
springs on Edgbaston Station (hereafter Edgbaston) in central Queensland
(Ivantsoff et al. 1991). It has never been found elsewhere, making it endemic to the
spring complex on Edgbaston (Fairfax et al. 2007). The combined surface area of
currently occupied springs is less than 1 ha, with those springs located within an
area of ~100 ha (Fig. 30.2). The red-finned blue-eye is listed as Endangered under
the Commonwealth’s (federal) Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act 1999
(EPBC Act) and Queensland legislation (Nature Conservation Act 1992), and is
listed as Critically Endangered on the International Union for the Conservation of
Nature Red List.
The red-finned blue-eye co-occurs with a remarkable number of endemic
invertebrates and plants, and another threatened and range-limited fish, the
Edgbaston goby Chlamydogobius squamigenus (Vulnerable under the EPBC Act).
Indeed, Edgbaston contains Australia’s most ecologically diverse spring complex
(Ponder et al. 2010; Fensham et al. 2011) and the entire Great Artesian Basin spring
Fig. 30.1. Typical spring habitat at Edgbaston. Photo: R. Wager. A mature female (inset, left) and male
(inset, right) red-finned blue-eye. Photos: A. Kerezsy.