The mass fish kill crisis in New South Wales is now affecting the state’s north with thousands of carcasses found on the banks of Lake Inverell.

The federal government has launched a review into why up to a million fish died along the Darling River at Menindee, in the state’s west, earlier this month.

It will also analyse how future deaths can be avoided within the parameters of the Murray-Darling basin plan.

But the NSW government on Tuesday night confirmed thousands of fish have since been found dead almost 900km away along the Macintyre River, one of the basin’s northern-most catchments.

Photos posted to social media by Inverell locals depict swathes of dead freshwater shrimp and fish washed ashore.

The state’s primary industries department is monitoring the situation with local council and WaterNSW while fisheries officers are looking into reports of larger dead fish upstream.

The Lower Darling, Barwon-Darling, Namoi, Lower Murrumbidgee and Mannus Creek areas are also on high alert for fish deaths before the drought breaks, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority said.

It comes as the Australian Academy of Science named the expert group of scientists it has assembled to investigate the causes of the disaster.

The academy is examining the fish kill after a request from the Labor leader, Bill Shorten, and will produce a report in time for the first week of parliament, which begins 11 February.

Prof Craig Moritz, the director of the Centre for Biodiversity Analysis at the Australian National University, will chair the investigation.

The other members of the panel are professors Tim Flannery, Lee Godden, Quentin Grafton, Lesley Head, Richard Kingsford, John Williams, Linda Blackall, Jenny Davis and Sue Jackson. The group’s expertise extends across biodiversity, ecosystem and water management, and climate change.

The academy’s president, John Shine, said the panel was “multidisciplinary in nature”.

“The knowledge that the expert panel brings to bear will enable the various aspects of this matter to be explored and comprehensive advice to be prepared,” he said. “In undertaking this body of work, the expert panel will collaborate with other relevant experts as required and will seek to consult with the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and relevant state and federal bodies.”

The three-week investigation will examine five key points: how the fish kills took place and what caused the magnitude of the event, whether water diversions and management practices exacerbated or caused the disaster, whether chemicals and fertiliser were a contributing factor, what immediate steps can be taken to improve the river system’s health and management, and whether climate change has led to a steep change in inflows into the river system.

The panel will give its advice to the opposition by 10 February and the report will be made public.

The water minister, David Littleproud, said the first round of draft reports from their “fair dinkum independent panel” were due by 20 February, with the final findings to be handed down the following month.