Sandon River

Our water quality monitoring program has shown the Sandon River estuary to have good water quality. Find out more about the estuary and its unique features.

The Sandon River flows through Yuraygir National Park into the sea between Brooms Head and Wooli on the New South Wales north coast. The entrance is flanked by two rocky headlands which act as natural training walls. This estuary is classed as a medium-sized barrier river.

The Sandon River represents a relatively undisturbed system. Most of the catchment is protected under national park management or managed by forestry. Candole Creek and Toumbaal Creek converge with the Sandon River to form the lower estuary where extensive tidal flats provide abundant habitat for shorebirds and crustaceans.

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 located between the Queensland border and Taree every 3 years. The most recent sampling in the Sandon River was completed over the 2021–22 summer when 2 sites were sampled on a monthly basis.

Sandon River 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 'good' and water clarity is rated 'good' giving an overall rating of 'good' or 'B'.

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:

  • algae abundance graded good (B)
  • water clarity graded good (B)
  • overall estuary health graded good (B).

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 Sandon River since 2007. This table shows the water quality grades for this estuary over that time.

Sandon River historic water quality grades from 2007-08 for algae and water clarity. Colour-coded ratings (red, orange, yellow, light green and dark green represent very poor (E), poor (D), fair (C), good (B) and excellent (A), respectively).

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

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

Physical characteristics

Estuary type: Barrier river

Entrance
location 		Latitude (ºS) –29.67
Longitude (ºE) 153.33
Catchment area (km2) 131.5
Estuary area (km2) 2.6
Estuary volume (ML) 2393.5
Average depth (m) 1.1

Tidal exchange volume

Tidal exchange volume or tidal prism data is available for this estuary. This tidal prism was measured in 1980.

Tide state Flow
(106 m3)		 Local tidal
range (m)		 Sydney Harbour
tidal range (m)
Ebb flow 2.94 1.45 1.5
Flood flow 3.25 1.55 1.4
Notes: km2 = square kilometres; m = metres; m3 = cubic metres; ML = megalitres.

Water depth and survey data

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

Land use

Sandon River drains an almost entirely forested catchment which lies within Yuraygir National Park and Forestry Corporation land. The small village of Sandon and a busy camping area are located at the entrance of the estuary.

National and marine parks

Citizen science projects

  • Clarence Valley Council runs the Caring for our Coastal Emus project, which includes an online emu register that community members can report where they’ve seen coastal emus.

Community involvement

  • Clarence Landcare supports volunteer groups working to improve the environment in this region, including the Sandon River Environmental Alliance.
Sandon River