An ecological investigation of the Myall Lakes region

Abstract

This ecological study of the Myall Lakes, a lagoon system on the New South Wales central coast, presents the physical setting and characteristics of the Lakes’catchments and relates these characteristics to the hydrochemical features of surface and subsurface waters. In turn these hydrochemical features have been related to the aquatic communities. It is suggested that the predominance of forest vegetation and stable soils in the Lakes’catchment has assisted in retaining these lakes in a generally undisturbed state. Fluctuations of salinity, turbidity and ionic concentrations in the lower part of the system are controlled by natural inputs of rainfall, run-off and tidal flushings. However, Boolambayte Lake and particularly Myall Lake, the upper part of the system, appear to be isolated from these influences. The aquatic communities reflect these hydrochemical differences. The lack of flushing of waters in this upper part of the system, in Dirty Creek and to a lesser extent in the Myall River immediately upstream of the Broadwater, makes these areas particularly susceptible to pollution and eutrophication associated with increased development.