06/05/2024 - Opera House net exchange - Green Adelaide Landscape Board

Opera house nets were banned from use in South Australia last July. 

Green Adelaide and RecFish SA are hosting a net exchange event on Saturday 11 May, 10am – 1.30pm, on the banks of the River Torrens / Karrawirra Pari (Felixstow Reserve) to raise awareness about the ban, remove these dangerous nets from that system and look after our river for a proposed platypus reintroduction. 

The exchange event allows members of the community to swap up to x5 nets for a more wildlife-friendly pyramid style net. All collected opera house nets will be disposed of responsibly, and recycled through the GhostNets program. 

It is vital to ensure all opera house nets are removed from the system to protect air-breathing aquatic animals, such as rakali (native water rat) and turtles.

The removal of opera house nets also supports Green Adelaide’s rewilding project to reintroduce platypus to the River Torrens / Karrawirra Pari. An independent scoping study, commissioned by Green Adelaide, last year found that the removal of these nets was a key requirement of preparing the system for a possible platypus return.

In this segment, we hear from Professor Chris Daniels, the Presiding Member of the Green Adelaide Landscape Board, an environmentalist, zoologist and science communicator.