EstuaryWatch Data Portal

Estuary recently opened and sea water entering estuary especially at high tide

Gauge board 1.85m

Laqua twin pH meter would not calibrate correctly so litmus paper used instead

Hach meter broken so no temperature, O2, EC readings

Laquatwin broken so used filter paper

Estuary closed

AHD 1.308m

As at 11:00am 18/09/2022 with a water level of 1.924m and berm height of 0.43m a natural opening will not occur before at least a river water level of 2.354m which exceeds flooding height.

Without the turbidity tube, the water looked good and clear at the top and good and very clear at the bottom

Estuary artificially opened on 11/6/21

Small berm with sea water entering estuary at high tide

Minimum Berm height was around 0.73. unless the situation with the berm eases, it's unlikely it will naturally open before flooding impacts occur

AHD 1.89m

struggled to lock a reading for 2.50m, it was bouncing around about here however.

Minimum berm height was between 0.8m - 0.9m (Est 0.82m). unless the swell manages to remove sand (doubtful) from the berm it's likely it won't naturally open before it reaches impact flooding levels

struggled to lock a reading for 2.50m, it was bouncing around about here however.

Minimum berm height was between 0.8m - 0.9m (Est 0.82m). unless the swell manages to remove sand (doubtful) from the berm it's likely it won't naturally open before it reaches impact flooding levels

pH measured using strip as pH meter broken

struggled to lock a reading for 2.50m and 2.65m, it was bouncing around about here however.

berm height is around 0.8m - 1.1m dependant on where sam will dig through, the 0.8m is close to the cliff (under the lighthouse)

i estimated the berm height around 0.9m - 1.0m in height between the river water level and the top of the berm.

Someone might pick up on it as well but obviously the water has gotten deeper but the height i measured the at is shallower than it was last time (2.65m). i'm not sure what happened there and if something is now in the water in the location i was sampling or if perhaps I've moved slightly and there was a depression in the location i was originally at. AHD height has increased from the last time (May 28th - 1.76m AHD) though to 1.86m today

estimated the berm heigh at 1-1.1m in height between the river water level and the of the berm.

AHD 1.78m  approx

Potentially stirred up the bottom turbidity

AHD 1.77m approx

Side note, I took a rudimental measurement of the berm height above the river water level (using a measuring stick lining up with the top of the berm & horizon) which indicated a berm height of 1.1m - 1.2m.

AHD 1.54m

Coastal Court and Butlers Bend fishing platforms underwater so no measures taken

Strong inflow after rain, mouth artificially opened 2 days earlier

Estuary rose from 1.8m on Saturday to 2.0 on Sunday afternoon

Hach meter periodically lost connection to oxygen probe. Had to jiggle cable to get measurements. Sensitive to movement of cables

Digger seen at entrance - presumably artificially opening estuary

56.4 mm of rain received on the 10th May. Water flowing into estuary from dam

Both top & bottom turbidity samples are less than 9.

Estuary artificially opened during the week

Both top and bottom Turbidity is LESS than 9

pH meter broken so used filter paper

Meter was off when we started the monitoring so had to turn the meter on. It took a long time for the oxygen reading to stabilise so that we could calibrate it but eventually we were able to calibrate the oxygen. However, the oxygen readings were all high so results could be suspect unless they are similar to the readings at the other measuring points. The readings at 0.1 were jumping around quite a lot for all parameters but were behaving more normally at the other depths.

Birds identified included Egret x 2, Swans x 2, Coots x 80-100, Packific black ducks x 8, Cockatoos x 4, Raven sp.

Depth of estuary varying by tide - low at low tide and higher at high tide (12:14 pm on the monitoring day)

Water sample at top depth was noticeably discoloured (muddy brown) but clear at the bottom depth

Blue wrens and cormorants observed

Estuary was artificially opened earlier in the week but the entrance is now closed again.

Coots and swans observed on the estuary. Sea water entering the estuary at high tide

Unable to calibrate oxygen so no dissolved oxygen measures taken or recorded

Swans

AHD 1.5

Estuary closed

Old bridge site which has been used for 10 years.

Obvious flow outwards due to recent rains

New bridge on north side of great ocean road

Obvious outflow from heavy rain

Coots on estuary

Estuary opened during testing (11:29 am) but no visible impact at bridge

Water was being released from Painkalac Dam later that day into the river and then into estuary.

No lower (depth) measurements taken, as no attachment on van dorn for probe.

Did not take other measurements at 2.2 as too difficult to determine this depth without attachment on Van Doorn and so close to 2.0 metres. 

Due to not being able to calibrate EC, we did not take any EC measurements.

As the rope holding the Van Dorn broke and the Van Dorn was lost on the bottom of the estuary before any measurements could be taken we did not do any measurements at 2.3 m or do Turbidity or pH measurements either.

We also noted that the oxygen went out of calibration very quickly

Does not appear to be any sea water entering estuary at high tide

Observation Id on database: 10455

Observation Id on database: 10454

Estuary mouth open today.

Observation Id on database: 10453

Kayak paddled under bridge while monitoring.

Observation Id on database: 10452