Anyone 18 or over who fishes with a line in one of Queensland’s 65 stocked dams and weirs needs a Stocked Impoundment Permit; under-18s do not. The price is A$13.60 per week or A$64.58 per year, or A$46.45 per year for eligible concession card holders, and a single permit is valid at every impoundment in the scheme. Buy it online through the Department of Primary Industries portal run by Australia Post, by phone on 1300 575 359, or over the counter at any Queensland Australia Post outlet.
From the fifth week of fishing in a year, the annual permit is cheaper than buying weekly ones (5 × A$13.60 = A$68.00, against A$64.58).
| Permit | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| One week | A$13.60 | Issued for one week; the online form asks for the start date. |
| One year | A$64.58 | Issued for one year; covers every SIPS impoundment. |
| One year, concession | A$46.45 | For holders of a Queensland Government Seniors Card, a Pensioner Concession Card, a Health Care Card or a Repatriation Health Care Card (Gold Card). |
| Under 18 | Free | No permit required. |
Read on 28 September 2026 from the Queensland Government buy page, last updated 28 July 2026, which states that most fees rose by 3.4% on 1 July 2026 under the government’s indexation policy. Queensland Government, Stocked Impoundment Permit.
The Fisheries (General) Regulation 2019 makes it a prescribed act for an adult to take freshwater fish from a prescribed stocked impoundment with a fishing line, and only the holder of a stocked impoundment permit or a general fisheries permit may do it. The Queensland Government page puts it plainly: every person aged 18 and over needs a permit to line fish a SIPS impoundment, and children and teenagers under 18 do not.
The regulation defines a fishing line as a line that is hand-held or attached to a rod or reel. Cross-lines, drum lines, free-floating lines and set lines are excluded from that definition, so the permit does not authorise them. The permit covers taking freshwater fish with a fishing line and nothing else; any other gear is governed by the general freshwater rules.
A single permit covers line fishing at every impoundment in the scheme, and the government page says there is no separate permit for each one. The waters are the 65 impoundments named in schedule 8 of the regulation, and each one counts only up to its full supply level, so a river or creek above the top of the storage is not a scheme water.
When you fish a stocked impoundment you must carry the permit, whether as the email, the SMS or the paper receipt, and show it if an officer of the Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol asks for it.
Under section 82 of the Fisheries Act 1994, doing a prescribed act without the required authority is an offence with a maximum penalty of 1,000 penalty units. The permit pages do not publish an on-the-spot fine amount for fishing without a SIPS permit.
The permit does not change the species rules. The freshwater barramundi closure of 1 November to 31 January does not apply in a list of stocked dams that includes Burdekin Falls, Callide, Fairbairn, Fred Haigh, Peter Faust and Tinaroo, nor in the waterways upstream of them; Theresa Creek Dam is stocked with barramundi but is not named on that page’s exemption list. The Murray cod closure of 1 August to 31 October does not apply in Connolly, Cooby, Coolmunda, Glenlyon, Leslie and Storm King dams, but it does apply in the scheme’s Murray–Darling weirs.
From the government’s list of stocked impoundments, last updated 2026-07-01, with the species it lists for each. Level today is the Bureau of Meteorology’s percentage full for the 35 waters it reports; weirs and small dams mostly have none. Waters we report on link to their page.
| Water | Species listed | Level today |
|---|---|---|
| Aplins Weir | Barramundi | — |
| Black Weir | Barramundi | — |
| Burdekin Falls Dam fishing report | Barramundi | 87.0% |
| Eungella Dam fishing report | Barramundi, Sooty grunter | 97.1% |
| Gleeson’s Weir | Barramundi | — |
| Kinchant Dam fishing report | Barramundi, Sooty grunter | 89.1% |
| Koombooloomba Dam | Barramundi | — |
| Lake Belmore | Barramundi, Sooty grunter | — |
| Peter Faust Dam fishing report | Barramundi, Sooty grunter | 93.3% |
| Teemburra Dam fishing report | Barramundi, Sooty grunter | 97.8% |
| Tinaroo Falls Dam fishing report | Barramundi, Sooty grunter | 95.0% |
| Water | Species listed | Level today |
|---|---|---|
| Baroon Pocket Dam fishing report | Australian bass, Mary River cod | 93.2% |
| Bill Gunn Dam (Lake Dyer) fishing report | Australian bass, Golden perch, Mary River cod, Silver perch | 65.9% |
| Borumba Dam fishing report | Australian bass, Golden perch, Mary River cod, Silver perch | 97.8% |
| Caboolture River Weir | Australian bass, Mary River cod | — |
| Cressbrook Dam fishing report | Australian bass, Golden perch, Mary River cod, Saratoga, Silver perch | — |
| Enoggera Reservoir fishing report | Australian bass, Mary River cod | 97.9% |
| Ewen Maddock Dam fishing report | Australian bass, Golden perch, Mary River cod, Saratoga | 92.9% |
| Hinze Dam fishing report | Australian bass, Golden perch, Mary River cod, Saratoga, Silver perch | 95.9% |
| Lake MacDonald fishing report | Australian bass, Golden perch, Mary River cod, Silver perch | 39.2% |
| Maroon Dam fishing report | Australian bass, Golden perch, Mary River cod, Silver perch | 98.8% |
| Moogerah Dam fishing report | Australian bass, Golden perch, Mary River cod, Silver perch | 77.4% |
| North Pine Dam fishing report | Australian bass, Golden perch, Mary River cod, Saratoga, Silver perch | 48.8% |
| Sideling Creek Dam (Lake Kurwongbah) fishing report | Australian bass, Golden perch, Mary River cod, Saratoga | 96.4% |
| Somerset Dam fishing report | Australian bass, Golden perch, Mary River cod, Saratoga, Silver perch | 79.0% |
| Wivenhoe Dam fishing report | Australian bass, Golden perch, Mary River cod, Saratoga, Silver perch | 81.1% |
| Woodford Weir | Australian bass, Golden perch, Mary River cod, Silver perch | — |
| Wyaralong Dam fishing report | Australian bass, Mary River cod | 96.0% |
| Water | Species listed | Level today |
|---|---|---|
| Ben Anderson Barrage fishing report | Barramundi | 65.3% |
| Bjelke-Petersen Dam fishing report | Australian bass, Golden perch, Saratoga, Silver perch | 92.5% |
| Boondooma Dam fishing report | Australian bass, Golden perch, Silver perch | 89.0% |
| Cania Dam fishing report | Australian bass, Golden perch, Saratoga, Silver perch | 23.0% |
| Claude Wharton Weir fishing report | Australian bass, Barramundi, Golden perch | 57.1% |
| Fred Haigh Dam (Lake Monduran) fishing report | Australian bass, Barramundi | 92.3% |
| Gordonbrook Dam | Australian bass, Golden perch | — |
| Jones Weir fishing report | Australian bass, Golden perch, Silver perch | — |
| Lake Gregory (Isis Balancing Storage) fishing report | Australian bass, Barramundi, Saratoga, Silver perch | — |
| Lenthalls Dam fishing report | Australian bass, Barramundi, Golden perch, Silver perch | — |
| Mount Morgan No. 7 Dam fishing report | Golden perch, southern saratoga, sleepy cod, eel-tailed catfish | 93.0% |
| Wuruma Dam fishing report | Australian bass, Barramundi, Golden perch, Silver perch | 95.0% |
| Water | Species listed | Level today |
|---|---|---|
| Ben Dor Weir fishing report | Golden perch, Murray Cod, Silver Perch | — |
| Bonshaw Weir | Golden perch, Murray cod | — |
| Cecil Plains Weir fishing report | Golden perch, Murray cod, Silver perch | — |
| Chinchilla Weir | Golden perch, Murray Cod, Silver Perch | 25.5% |
| Connolly Dam | Golden perch, Murray Cod, Silver Perch | — |
| Cooby Dam fishing report | Golden perch, Murray Cod, Silver Perch | — |
| Coolmunda Dam fishing report | Golden perch, Murray Cod, Silver Perch | 49.7% |
| Cunningham (Beebo) Weir | Golden perch, Murray cod | — |
| Gil Weir | Golden perch, Murray cod | — |
| Glenarbon Weir | Golden perch, Murray cod | — |
| Glenlyon Dam fishing report | Golden perch, Murray cod, Silver perch | 43.4% |
| Goondiwindi (Paul Hilton) Weir | Golden perch, Murray cod | — |
| Inglewood Town Weir | Golden perch, Murray Cod, Silver Perch | — |
| Lemon Tree Weir | Golden perch, Murray cod, Silver perch | — |
| Leslie Dam fishing report | Golden perch, Murray cod, Silver perch | 55.5% |
| Miles Weir | Golden perch, Murray cod | — |
| Storm King Dam | Golden perch, Murray cod, Silver perch | — |
| Surat Weir | Golden perch, Murray Cod, Silver Perch | — |
| Talgai Weir fishing report | Golden perch, Murray Cod, Silver Perch | — |
| Whetstone Weir fishing report | Golden perch, Murray cod, Silver perch | — |
| Yarramalong Weir | Golden perch, Murray cod, Silver perch | — |
| Water | Species listed | Level today |
|---|---|---|
| Callide Dam fishing report | Barramundi, Golden perch, Saratoga | 19.6% |
| Fairbairn Dam fishing report | Barramundi, Golden perch | 26.6% |
| Paradise Dam fishing report | Barramundi, Australian bass | 47.9% |
| Theresa Creek Dam | Barramundi, Golden perch, Saratoga | — |
Every Queensland storage, not only the scheme waters: Queensland dam levels today · SEQ dam levels · Townsville dam levels.
90% and over60–90%30–60%under 30%no capacity published
44 of the 65 waters are on the map: the ones we report on or the Bureau lists with a location.
The Stocked Impoundment Permit Scheme began in 2000 as a user-pays way of paying for fish stocking, and the Department of Primary Industries says it first applied to 25 stocked dams. From 1 July 2026 it applies to 65 impoundments. The department describes these dams and weirs as put, grow and take fisheries: most of the stocked species will not reproduce in them, so fingerlings have to be released again and again to keep a fishery there. The stocking itself is done under permit by community-based stocking groups, and a group asking to bring a water into the scheme must hold a general fisheries permit and a stocking management plan for it.
The department’s 2021 administration guideline, still linked from the scheme page, sets the split. At least 75% of each year’s permit revenue goes to stocking groups under grant deeds, and the remaining 25% stays with Fisheries Queensland to run the scheme, including the cost of Australia Post selling the permits. Allocations are decided in July and paid before 30 August, weighted by angler use and the fishable surface area of each water, with a minimum of A$500 per impoundment. Groups acquit what they spend with invoices and bank statements, and the department publishes an annual financial summary.
The location list, last updated on 1 July 2026, names three new stocked impoundments: Enoggera Reservoir, Mount Morgan No. 7 Dam and Paradise Dam. The 2021 guideline counted 63 impoundments. To join, a water must hold more than 12 hectares at full supply level, have a stocking group incorporated under the Associations Incorporation Act 1981, show at least three years of stocking with legal-size fish available, and have the written support of its owner and public access for fishing. Each addition or removal is made by amending schedule 8 of the regulation, with public consultation.
Four weekly permits cost A$54.40 and five cost A$68.00, so the yearly permit at A$64.58 is the cheaper choice as soon as a fifth week of fishing is on the cards. The concession year, at A$46.45, costs about 28% less than the full year. The online form asks for a permit start date, lets you add further permits to the same purchase, and accepts a residential address outside Australia, so interstate and overseas visitors can buy before they arrive. A permit bought over the counter at a post office is emailed within 24 hours, which is worth allowing for on the morning of a trip.
Not every dam in Queensland is a scheme water, and several that anglers ask about are missing from the list we read on 28 September 2026: Lake Awoonga, Ross River Dam, Lake Julius and Copperlode Falls Dam (Lake Morris) are not on it. Aplins Weir, Gleeson’s Weir and Black Weir, by contrast, are scheme waters, and the barramundi closure page treats the three as one group. Official names can also differ from the ones anglers use: the list files Lake Monduran under Fred Haigh Dam, Lake Kurwongbah under Sideling Creek Dam and Lake Dyer under Bill Gunn Dam, so search the list by both names.
The list groups the waters by catchment. All 21 Murray–Darling Basin waters are stocked with golden perch and Murray cod, and 15 of them with silver perch as well. Every one of the 17 South East Queensland waters is stocked with Australian bass and Mary River cod, and most of them add golden perch, saratoga or silver perch. The 11 Northern and Gulf waters are stocked with barramundi, some with sooty grunter, and the Burnett and Central waters mix bass, barramundi, golden perch and saratoga. Mount Morgan No. 7 Dam is the one listed with sleepy cod and eel-tailed catfish.
No. One Stocked Impoundment Permit covers line fishing at all 65 scheme impoundments for as long as it runs, whether that is a week or a year.
Yes, from age 18: Leslie Dam is a scheme water in the Murray–Darling Basin group, stocked with golden perch, Murray cod and silver perch. Cod can be kept there within the limits through August, September and October, because the Department of Primary Industries exempts Leslie Dam from the Murray cod closure.
No permit exists for under-18s because none is needed. A parent who fishes alongside a child needs their own permit if they are 18 or over and holding a line.
Carry the email, the text message or the paper receipt and produce it when a Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol officer asks. Save the email or text on your phone before you leave, in case there is no mobile reception at the water.
Yes, at nine Australia Post outlets over the border: Ashford, Boggabilla, Casino, Casino West, Inverell, Kyogle, Moree, Tenterfield and Yetman. The permit can also be bought online or by phone from anywhere.
The facts on this page were checked against these pages, from the agencies, park services and operators that manage the water on 28 September 2026; anything we could not verify was taken out. Written by Pablo Ruiz Quintero. Errors are published in the verification log.