Richmond Ecohealth Project 2014: Assessment of River and Estuarine Condition

The development of a standardised means of collecting, analysing and presenting riverine, coastal and estuarine assessments of ecological condition has been identified as a key need for coastal Local Land Services and Local Councils who are required to monitor natural resource condition, and water quality and quantity in these systems. Forty-eight study sites were selected across the Richmond catchment; 23 freshwater sites and 25 estuarine sites and these were sampled monthly (estuarine) or bi-monthly (freshwater) over a 12 month period in 2014 to contribute to the assessment of the ecological condition of the catchment.

The Richmond catchment was divided into 5 hydrologic units for reporting; Richmond River main stem; Wilsons River; Eden and Iron Pot Creeks and Shannon Brook; Bungawalbin, Myrtle and Sandy Creeks; and Emigrant, Maguires and North Creeks. The project aimed to

• Assess the health of coastal catchments using standardised indicators and reporting for estuaries, and freshwater river reaches using hydrology, water quality, riparian vegetation and habitat quality, geomorphic condition and macroinvertebrate assemblages as indicators of ecosystem health in streams of the Richmond catchment, and
• Contribute scientific information to the development of a report card system for communicating the health of the estuarine and freshwater systems in the Richmond region.