Geoff Heaney
Geoff Heaney
Geoff Heaney has lived on the Broken River for 68 years. His great grandfather purchased land in the Goomalibee district on the north side of the river in 1903, and later bought land on the southern side. He said the north side of the river is loamy soil, while the south side of the river is clay.
Geoff said the river has changed a lot over the years because of Lake Nillahcootie and Lake Mokoan. “The river used to stop flowing in some summers, and we’d go through the holes finding fish. These days, the nearest I’ve see it to stop flowing was when they did some work on Caseys Weir upstream,” said Geoff. The Heaney’s experienced the big ’93 floods when there was water surrounding the house from all angles. “You’d have to see it to believe it,” said Geoff.
Geoff’s wife, Lois, is an eager angler, and she reels in a meal from the Broken every fortnight or so. But Geoff reckons it used to be easier. “At around 11 in the morning Lois would say ‘I think we’ll have fish for dinner’, and she’d go out and catch a couple.” Geoff remembers catching plenty of redfin, yellowbelly and cod from the river, and the days when it was overflowing with carp. “Big ugly things,” he said.
