Is this not the Bathurst city water supply that is at time prone to having toxic blue-green algal blooms that create health risks for humans?

That aside, as a former communications officer for CSIRO Division of Water Resources involved in everything to do with water quality, before returning to reside in Bathurst and heading the Bathurst RSL Fishing Club, we were invited by mayor Ian Macintosh to join a discussion planning forum with council.

This involved the club entering a partnership with council and NSW Fisheries dollar-for-dollar to restock one of the most outstanding native fisheries in the region. It included the restoration of Eglinton river habitat, but also the well-planned use of Chifley Dam.

The plan was then to look at Fishermen’s Beach where the Olympic Village cabins were relocated. The RSL Fishing Club planned a recreation area barbecue facility and fishing platform, funded from the NSW Fishing Licence Trust - money freely accessed by council with the support of our club.

There could have been a revival of sailing. There could have also been a new launching ramp near the cabins shared with ski-boat enthusiasts. Council, however, never got its act together with any platform plans or other facilities the club could have assisted to finance.

Since then we have seen council encourage dragon boats to use the waterway. More recently, the Sydney suburban rowing club has relocated its flotilla to Chifley.

All of the above has occurred during times council has considered whether it needs to run a pipeline from Chifley to the Bathurst filtration plant to safeguard the domestic water supply of a growing city.

And if a pipeline is installed, it could curtail a lot of the recreational use of the dam.

Chifley Dam is limited, due to it being a water supply, to only some recreational demands – no matter how good the others might seem. Lake Lyell at Lithgow is not a water supply.

Surely mayor Graeme Hanger should be convening an urgent meeting of all users of Chifley Dam to plan for the future. The RSL Fishing Club opened its doors years ago to plan for recreation that would not impact on water quality.

As a recreational angler at the dam observing the abundance of aquatic weed now flourishing in the nutrient-rich, algae-prone water supply, it is only a matter of time before council will have to consider overall recreational access to Chifley Dam.

It’s much the same for the Macquarie River on our doorstep with a suggestion of a between the bridges beach.

The RSL Fishos have run a Carp Blitz for over 10 years to remove tonnes of pest fish, improve the water quality and restore the river to a native fish habitat and haven for the first time in a century.