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Narrawallee Inlet

Our water quality monitoring program has shown Narrawallee Inlet to have excellent water quality. Find out more about the estuary and its unique features.

Narrawallee Inlet is located on the south coast of New South Wales. It is classed as a barrier river with an intermittently closed entrance.

The estuary and adjacent national park offer great scenery as well as myriad opportunities for birdwatching, fishing, kayaking, swimming and bushwalking.

Water quality report card

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 Narrawallee Inlet was completed over the 2017–18 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.

A

Algae

A

Water clarity

A

Overall grade

The report card shows the condition of the estuary was excellent with:

  • algae abundance graded excellent (A)
  • water clarity graded excellent (A)
  • overall estuary health graded excellent (A).

Grades for algae, water clarity and overall are represented as: 

  • A – excellent 
  • B – good 
  • C – fair 
  • D – poor 
  • E – very poor.

Go to estuary report cards to find out what each grade means, read our sampling, data analysis and reporting protocols, and find out how we calculate these grades.

Aerial view of Narrawallee Inlet, showing a beachfront with waves crashing onto the shore, a river meandering through the landscape, residential areas with numerous houses, greenery, and roads, and a clear boundary where the urban area meets the natural water bodies.

Aerial view of Narrawallee Inlet estuary.

Local government management

Local councils manage estuaries within their area unless the estuary is attached to a marine park. Shoalhaven City Council(link is external) manages this estuary.

Threatened species

The Narrawallee Inlet estuary provides habitat for a range of migratory shorebirds, including the threatened pied oystercatcher(link is external).

Find out more about the biodiversity in our estuaries.