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Aim  By dissolving natural physical barriers to movement, human‐mediated species introductions have dramatically reshuffled the present‐day biogeography of freshwater fishes. The present study investigates whether the antiquity of Australia's freshwater ichthyofauna has been altered by the widespread invasion of non‐indigenous fish species.

Location  Australia.

Methods  Using fish presence–absence data for historical and present‐day species pools, we quantified changes in faunal similarity among major Australian drainage divisions and among river basins of north‐eastern Australia according to the Sørensen index, and related these changes to major factors of catchment disturbance that significantly alter river processes.

Results  Human‐mediated fish introductions have increased faunal similarity among primary drainages by an average of 3.0% (from 17.1% to 20.1% similarity). Over three‐quarters of …