Our water quality monitoring program has shown the Bellinger River estuary to have excellent water quality. Find out more about the estuary and its unique features.
Bellinger River is situated on the mid-north coast of New South Wales and meets the sea near Urunga.
Bellinger River estuary is a barrier river estuary. The lower estuary is formed where the Kalang River merges with the Bellinger River, creating a large and dynamic system. There is a southern training wall at the entrance that maintains a permanent channel to the sea. Other training walls have been constructed further upstream where the two rivers converge.
As part of our water quality monitoring program we assess the water quality and ecosystem health of an estuary using a range of relevant indicators. We sample a subset of the estuaries located between the Queensland border and Taree every 3 years. The most recent sampling in the Bellinger River was completed over the 2021–22 summer when 2 sites were sampled on a monthly basis.
This report card represents 2 water quality indicators that we routinely measure: the amount of algae present and water clarity. Low levels of these 2 indicators equate with good water quality.
The report card shows the condition of the estuary was excellent with:
Find out more about our estuary report cards and what each grade means. Read our sampling, data analysis and reporting protocols and find out how we calculate these grades.
We have monitored water quality in the Bellinger River estuary since 2009. This table shows the water quality grades for this estuary over that time.
Grades for algae, water clarity and overall are represented as:
Estuary type: Barrier river
| Entrance location |
Latitude (ºS) | –30.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Longitude (ºE) | 153.03 | |
| Catchment area (km2) | 1100.3 | |
| Estuary area (km2) | 8.2 | |
| Estuary volume (ML) | 14,441.6 | |
| Average depth (m) | 1.8 | |
Tidal exchange volume or tidal prism data is available for this estuary. This tidal prism was measured in 2001.
| Tide state | Flow (106 m3) |
Local tidal range (m) |
Sydney Harbour
tidal range (m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ebb flow | 2.45 | 1.16 | 1.53 |
| Flood flow | 2.55 | 1.26 | 1.58 |
Bathymetric and coastal topography data for this estuary are available in our data portal.
The catchment of the Bellinger River is slightly disturbed. Around 85% of the catchment remains forested, a lot of which is in the undulating areas of the upper catchment. Around 15% of land use has been changed, predominantly for cattle grazing, and these areas are concentrated along the floodplains of the river and its tributaries. Bellingen and Urunga are the major towns within the catchment; however they make up a small fraction of the land use within this large catchment.
DPE – Water provide a description of water in the Bellinger River and catchment, including information about its uses, values, and environmental and water sharing plans.
The NSW Food Authority website lists the current status of oyster/shellfish harvest areas.
Seafood harvest area status
The NSW Food Authority website lists the current status of oyster/shellfish harvest areas.
Local councils manage estuaries within their area unless the estuary is attached to a marine park.
Bellinger River is managed by Bellingen Shire Council. Information about the Bellinger River estuary can be found on the council’s Coast and rivers webpage.
Many threatened species live in the Bellinger River catchment including the Bellinger river snapping turtle, the curlew sandpiper and the beach stone-curlew.
Read more about the biodiversity in our estuaries.