Spring Creek

Our water quality monitoring program has shown Spring Creek to have fair water quality. Find out more about the estuary and its unique features.

Spring Creek estuary is located on the south coast of New South Wales near the township of Kiama. It is classed as a creek with an intermittently closed entrance at Bombo Beach.

The estuary supports rehabilitated wetlands, which are managed by the local council and community groups. The wetlands provide important habitat for plants and animals as well as great birdwatching opportunities.

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 between Wollongong and the Victorian border every 3 years. The most recent sampling in Spring Creek was completed over the 2017–18 summer when 2 sites were sampled on a monthly basis.

Spring Creek 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 'fair' and water clarity is rated 'excellent' 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 fair with:

  • algae abundance graded poor (D)
  • water clarity graded good (B)
  • overall estuary health graded fair (C).

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 Spring Creek since 2014. This table shows the water quality grades for this estuary over that time.

Spring Creek historic water quality grades from 2014-15 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: Creek

Entrance
location 		Latitude (ºS) –34.66
Longitude (ºE) 150.85
Catchment area (km2) 5.8
Estuary area (km2) 0.1
Estuary volume (ML) 15
Average depth (m) 0.3
Notes: km2 = square kilometres; m = metres; ML = megalitres.  

Water depth and survey data

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

Land use

The catchment of Spring Creek is highly disturbed with about 80% of land cleared for grazing and rural residence. New urban areas on the outskirts of Kiama make up 15% of urban land use in this catchment.

National and marine parks

  • Morton National Park is the largest conservation area within this catchment.
  • This estuary does not flow into a marine park.

Community involvement

  • Landcare Illawarra support volunteer groups working to improve the environment in this region.

Local government management

Local councils manage estuaries within their area unless the estuary is attached to a marine park. Kiama Municipal Council manage this estuary.