Millards Creek

Our water quality monitoring program has shown Millards Creek to have fair water quality. Find out more about the estuary and its unique features.

Millards Creek is classed as a small estuarine creek with an intermittently closed entrance. It is located on the south coast of New South Wales.

Estuary health and 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 Millards Creek was completed over the 2014–15 summer when 2 sites were sampled on a monthly basis.

Millards Creek water quality report card for algae and water clarity showing colour-coded ratings (red, orange, yellow, light green and dark green, which represent very poor, poor, fair, good and excellent, respectively). Algae is rated 'poor' and water clarity is rated 'good' giving an overall rating of 'fair' or 'C'.

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 fair with:

  • algae abundance graded good (B)
  • water clarity graded poor (D)
  • overall estuary health graded fair (C).

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.

Physical characteristics

Estuary type: Creek

Entrance
location 		Latitude (ºS) –35.35
Longitude (ºE) 150.48
Catchment area (km2) 4.5
Estuary area (km2) 0.005
Estuary volume (ML) 0.6
Average depth (m) 0.1
Notes: km2 = square kilometres; m = metres; ML = megalitres.  

Water depth and survey data

Bathymetric and coastal topography data for this estuary are available in our data portal.

Land use

The catchment of Millards Creek is highly disturbed with more than 70% of the catchment taken up by the urban centre of Ulladulla. Grazing occurs in 10% of the catchment and forested areas form about 15%.

National and marine parks

  • There are no conservation areas in the Millards Creek catchment.
  • There is no marine park associated with this estuary.

Community involvement

  • A community consultation on the Millards Creek Flood Study was held in early 2019 as part of work being done by the Shoalhaven City Council to develop a floodplain risk management plan.
Millards Creek

Local government management

Local councils manage estuaries within their area unless the estuary is attached to a marine park.

Shoalhaven City Council manage this estuary.