The development of a standardised means of collecting, analysing and presenting riverine, coastal and estuarine assessments of ecological condition has been identified as a key need for coastal Local Councils who are required to monitor natural resource condition, and water quality and quantity in these systems. Thirty-four study sites were selected across the Port Macquarie region; 15 freshwater sites and 19 estuarine sites and these were sampled 12 times from May 2014 to June 2015 to contribute to the assessment of the ecological condition of the catchment.
The Port Macquarie region comprises three catchments - the Hastings River, Lake Cathie - Lake Innes, and the Camden Haven River. These were divided into 14 subcatchments for reporting: Hastings River, Forbes River, Ellenborough River, Thone River, Pappinbarra River, Mortons Creek, Wilson River, Maria River and Limeburners Creek in the Hastings catchment; Lake Cathie - Lake Innes; and the Camden Haven River, Upsalls Creek, Black Creek and estuarine lagoons Watson Taylors Lake, Queens Lake and Gogleys Lagoon in the Camden Haven catchment. The project aimed to:
- Assess the health of coastal catchments using standardised indicators and reporting for estuaries, and freshwater river reaches using hydrology, water quality, riparian vegetation and habitat quality, geomorphic condition and macroinvertebrate assemblages as indicators of aquatic ecosystem health, and
- Contribute scientific information to the development of a report card system for communicating the health of the estuarine and freshwater systems in the Port Macquarie region.