Tallow Creek

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

Tallow Creek is a lagoon with an intermittently closed/open entrance that meets the sea just south of Byron Bay on the north coast of New South Wales. The lagoon entrance is a popular swimming spot.

The lower reaches of the estuary are encompassed by the Arakwal National Park, which is jointly managed by the Bundjalung of Byron Bay (Arakwal) People and NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.

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 Tallow Creek was completed over the 2021–22 summer when 2 sites were sampled on a monthly basis.

Tallow 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 'very poor' and water clarity is rated 'good' giving an overall rating of 'very poor' or 'D'.

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 poor with:

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

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 Tallow Creek since 2009. This table shows the water quality grades for this estuary over that time.

Tallow Creek historic water quality grades from 2009-10 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: Lagoon

Entrance
location 		Latitude (ºS) –28.67
Longitude (ºE) 153.62
Catchment area (km2) 5.34
Estuary area (km2) 0.1
Estuary volume (ML) 46.6
Average depth (m) 0.4
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 Tallow Beach is highly disturbed. The main land use is urban development, which makes up over half of the catchment. The suburb of Suffolk Park falls within the catchment, along with other low-density urban development. Worth noting is the now defunct sewerage treatment plant which operated adjacent to the estuary.

National and marine parks

Community involvement

  • Byron Bird Buddies is a volunteer community group involved with bird monitoring, conservation and education in the Northern Rivers region.
Tallow Creek