Our water quality monitoring program has shown Nelson Lagoon to have excellent water quality. Find out more about the estuary and its unique features.
Nelson Lagoon is located on the far south coast of New South Wales. It is classed as a barrier river estuary and its entrance remains open to the ocean.
The estuary contains wetlands that are listed in the Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia for providing significant saltmarsh habitat.
The estuary has several small waterways, such as Duckhole Bay and Sandfly Bay. The main tributary to the lagoon is Nelson Creek.
The lagoon is located within Mimosa Rocks National Park and is a popular for swimming, fishing and birdwatching.
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 Nelson Lagoon 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.
B
Algae
A
Water clarity
A
Overall grade
The report card shows the condition of the estuary was excellent with:
algae abundance graded good (B)
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.
We have monitored water quality in Nelson Lagoon since 2011. This table shows the water quality grades for this estuary over that time.
Year
Algae
Water clarity
Overall grade
2011–12
A
A
A
Physical characteristics
Estuary type
Barrier river
Latitude (ºS)
–36.69
Longitude (ºE)
149.99
Catchment area (km2)
27
Estuary area (km2)
1.3
Estuary volume (ML)
1077.8
Average depth (m)
0.9
Notes: km2 = square kilometres; m = metres; ML = megalitres.
The Far South Coast Conservation Management Network(link is external) supports the local community to better manage native biodiversity. The network organises citizen science projects, provides information for private landowners, manages a local plant database, and coordinates events.