Residents in a regional Australian town have woken to find millions of dead fish in their river. The large-scale fish deaths were first reported on Friday morning in the New South Wales’ (NSW) town of Menindee. The state’s river authority said it was a result of an ongoing heatwave affecting the Darling-Baaka river. Locals say it is the largest fish death event to hit the town, that experienced another significant mass death of fish just three years ago.

Around 500 people live in the town in far-west New South Wales. The Darling-Baaka river is a part of the Murray Darling Basin, Australia’s largest river system. The NSW DPI also said that the fish deaths were “distressing to the local community”, a sentiment echoed by Mr McCrabb. “You can just imagine leaving a fish in your kitchen to rot with all the doors shut and no air conditioner, and we’ve got millions of them.”

The temperature in Menindee was expected to reach 41C on Saturday. He added that locals in the regional town rely on the Darling-Baaka for water supplies, “we use the river water for washing and showering in so people won’t be able to use that water for those basic needs again,” he said.