Our water quality monitoring program has shown Little Lake (Narooma) to have good water quality. Find out more about the estuary and its unique features.
Little Lake in Narooma is a small back-dune lagoon with an intermittently open entrance. It is a shallow estuary and the entrance opens to Narooma Beach.
Located on the New South Wales south coast, the lake is largely surrounded by the Narooma Golf Course.
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 Little Lake (Narooma) was completed over the 2014–15 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:
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.
Estuary type: Back-dune lagoon
| Entrance location |
Latitude (ºS) | –36.22 |
|---|---|---|
| Longitude (ºE) | 150.14 | |
| Catchment area (km2) | 2.2 | |
| Estuary area (km2) | 0.1 | |
| Estuary volume (ML) | 35.3 | |
| Average depth (m) | 0.4 | |
Bathymetric and coastal topography data for this estuary are available in our data portal.
The catchment of Little Lake at Narooma is highly disturbed due to 60% urban land-use, which includes an industrial estate. One-third of the catchment is forest.
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.
Estuaries are important to our native animals as they provide food, shelter and breeding grounds.
Find out more about the biodiversity in our estuaries.