Candlagan Creek is a barrier river estuary with an open entrance. It is located south of the Tomaga River near Mossy Point on the south coast of New South Wales.
Candlagan Creek
Our water quality monitoring program has shown Candlagan Creek to have good water quality. Find out more about the estuary and its unique features.
Water quality
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 between Wollongong and the Victorian border every 3 years. The most recent sampling in Candlagan Creek was completed over the 2020–21 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 good with:
- algae abundance graded good (B)
- water clarity graded excellent (A)
- overall estuary health graded good (B).
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 Candlagan Creek since 2008. This table shows the water quality grades for this estuary over that time.
Grades for algae, water clarity and overall are represented as:
- A – excellent
- B – good
- C – fair
- D – poor
- E – very poor.
Physical characteristics
Estuary type: Barrier river
| Entrance location |
Latitude (ºS) | –35.84 |
|---|---|---|
| Longitude (ºE) | 150.18 | |
| Catchment area (km2) | 24.1 | |
| Estuary area (km2) | 0.2 | |
| Estuary volume (ML) | 52 | |
| Average depth (m) | 0.4 | |
Water depth and survey data
Bathymetric and coastal topography data for this estuary are available in our data portal.
Land use
The catchment of Candlagan Creek is moderately disturbed due to 10% being cleared for grazing and 7% for urban land use including Bimbimbie and Mossy Point. About 75% of the catchment remains as forest.
National and marine parks
- Illawong Nature Reserve is the largest conservation area in the catchment for the Candlagan Creek estuary.
- This estuary flows into the Batemans Marine Park.
Citizen science projects
- iNaturalist’s Plants of Eurobodalla is a citizen science project that monitors plants found in the Eurobodalla region.
- The Budawang Coast Nature Map is an online data platform the community can use to record and identify biodiversity. Data collected is used to map the distribution of native plant and animal species from Moruya up almost to Kiama.
Community involvement
- Eurobodalla Landcare is a volunteer network of 24 Landcare groups on the New South Wales south coast.
- The Coastwatchers Association is a community environmental and conservation group based on the south coast.
Local government management
Local councils manage estuaries within their area unless the estuary is attached to a marine park.
Eurobodalla Shire Council manage this estuary, which is located in Batemans Marine Park.