Our water quality monitoring program has shown Jerusalem Creek to have excellent water quality. Find out more about the estuary and its unique features.
Jerusalem Creek is a lagoon with an intermittently closed/open entrance. It is located within Bundjalung National Park on the north coast of New South Wales.
The estuary is an important shallow lagoon wetland system with largely undisturbed grasslands and riparian vegetation communities.
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 Jerusalem Creek was completed over the 2018–19 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 Jerusalem Creek 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: Lagoon
| Entrance location |
Latitude (ºS) | –29.21 |
|---|---|---|
| Longitude (ºE) | 153.39 | |
| Catchment area (km2) | 48.3 | |
| Estuary area (km2) | 0.3 | |
| Estuary volume (ML) | 178.9 | |
| Average depth (m) | 0.6 | |
Bathymetric and coastal topography data for this estuary are available in our data portal.
The catchment of Jerusalem Creek falls within the protection of Bundjalung National Park and is barely disturbed today. Commercial sand mining occurred between 1932 and 1982 and a large pile of tailings remain west of the creek. There is also a small camping area and some unsealed roads near Jerusalem Creek.
Local councils manage estuaries within their area unless the estuary is attached to a marine park. Jerusalem Creek is managed by Richmond Valley Council.
A population of the endangered sand spurge has been discovered within Bundjalung National Park near Jerusalem Creek estuary. Sand spurge is a herb that grows on sand dunes, forming mats up to 1 metre wide. It is sparse along the New South Wales coast.
Read more about the biodiversity in our estuaries.