Survey of Tidal Limits and Mangrove Limits in NSW estuaries 1996 to 2005 coasts and floodplains Mangrove lined upper reaches of Deadmans Creek (near Ballina) Acknowledgements Prepared by Manly Hydraulics Laboratory [Report No. MHL 1286, Commerce Report No. 03081] for the Department of Natural Resources Manly Hydraulics Laboratory is Quality System Certified to AS/NZS ISO 9001:2000. Survey of tidal limits and mangrove limits in NSW estuaries 1996 to 2005 © State of New South Wales through the Department of Natural Resources September 2006 www.naturalresources.nsw.gov.au Publication number DNR 2006_0118 ISBN 0 7347 4302 5 DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES SURVEY OF TIDAL LIMITS AND MANGROVE LIMITS IN NSW ESTUARIES 1996 to 2005 Report No. MHL1286 NSW Department of Commerce Manly Hydraulics Laboratory Report No. MHL1286 Commerce Report No. 03081 ISBN 0 7347 4302 5 MHL File No. DA0074 First published April 2006 © Crown copyright 2006 This work is copyright. The Copyright Act 1968 permits fair dealing for study, research, news reporting, criticism or review. Selected passages, tables or diagrams may be reproduced for such purposes provided acknowledgment of the source is included. Major extracts or the entire document may not be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries should be directed to the Publications Officer, Manly Hydraulics Laboratory, 110B King Street, Manly Vale, NSW, 2093. Manly Hydraulics Laboratory is Quality System Certified to AS/NZS ISO 9001:2000. IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER The State of New South Wales, the publisher, the authors and the editors do not accept any responsibility or liability in connection with the consequences of any action taken or omitted to be taken by any person, whether a purchaser of the publication or not, as a consequence of anything contained in or omitted from this publication. No one should act, or neglect to act, on the basis of anything contained in this publication without taking professional advice in relation to the particular circumstances. This publication has been prepared for non-commercial, information purposes only and should not be relied upon for an act or omission that may result in loss. It is important to note that the tidal and mangrove limits presented in this report have been determined from observations during a specific period of time and should not be used for mean high water boundary definition. The results may vary with time as a result of changing influences such as mean sea level, entrance conditions and freshwater inflow. If a watercourse is not included in this list or has been listed as not yet surveyed, it should not be inferred that it is non-tidal. MHL1286 - i Foreword The data presented in this report was collected in NSW estuaries between August 1996 and August 2005 as part of the NSW Department of Natural Resources’ Estuary Management Program. This important information will help Estuary Management Committees, Catchment Management Committees, other agencies and institutions, and local communities better manage and understand the coastal zone of New South Wales. A full set of the raw data collected in the field, field notes and photographs used in the preparation of this report are retained at Manly Hydraulics Laboratory and may be viewed upon application to the Environmental Data Services Manager. These work notes and photographs are stored in MHL archive file no. 1259. This report was prepared by Mr D Allsop from Manly Hydraulics Laboratory, under the direction of Mr M Fitzhenry from the Estuaries Unit, Coastal, Estuaries and Floodplain Management, Department of Natural Resources. MHL1286 - ii Table of Contents FOREWORD II 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 History of the Estuary Management Program 1 1.2 History of Tidal Limits 1 1.3 No Reliable Tidal Limit Data 2 1.4 Need to Better Define the Tidal Limit 2 1.5 Mangrove Limit Definition (Coastal Policy 1977) 3 1.6 Water Sharing Plans 3 1.7 Potential Indicators of Climate Change 3 2. METHODOLOGY 5 2.1 Tidal Limits 5 2.1.1 Definition of Tidal Limit 5 2.1.2 Selection of Estuaries to be Surveyed 6 2.1.3 Field Surveys 6 2.1.4 Accuracy and Naming Conventions 7 2.1.5 Coordinate System 7 2.2 Mangrove Limits 8 2.2.1 Definition of Mangrove Limit 8 2.2.2 Field Surveys 8 2.2.3 Accuracy and Coordinate System 8 3. SOUTHERN OSCILLATION INDEX 9 4. TIDAL LIMITS 10 4.1 Tidal Limits North to South Listing 10 4.2 Tidal Limits Alphabetical Listing 10 5. MANGROVE LIMITS 63 5.1 Mangrove Limits North to South Listing 63 5.2 Mangrove Limits Alphabetical Listing 63 6. REFERENCES 114 7. GLOSSARY OF TIDAL TERMS 115 MHL1286 - iii List of Tables 4.1 NSW Tidal Limits - North to South Listing 4.2 NSW Tidal Limits - Alphabetical Listing 5.1 NSW Mangrove Limits - North to South Listing 5.2 NSW Mangrove Limits - Alphabetical Listing List of Figures 2.1 Middle Harbour Tidal Planes - 1 July 2001 to 30 June 2002 2.2 Water Level Recorders on Coolagolite Creek - 30 July 2000 2.3 Water Level Data - Coolagolite Creek - 29 to 30 July 2000 2.4 Surveying Mangrove Limits 3.1 Southern Oscillation Index 1988-2005 MHL1286 - iv 1. Introduction 1.1 History of the Estuary Management Program The NSW Estuary Management Program (EMP) was established in 1992 to help restore and protect estuaries along the NSW coast. The EMP is administered by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). It targets a broad range of planning and natural resource management issues and engages local communities in the process of managing the coastal zone. The EMP focuses on the sustainable use, conservation, protection, rehabilitation and improved health of NSW estuaries. The EMP encourages local communities to take responsibility for managing their own estuaries. In most cases a local council will form an estuary management committee to help it manage all of the estuaries in its council area. Of the estimated 130 significant estuaries in NSW over 75% are managed by these committees. Based on its priorities the committee will then progressively prepare estuary management plans for individual estuaries with local community participation. DNR provides technical and financial support to estuary management committees that are established by local councils. These committees are made up of representatives from local government and state agencies responsible for managing the estuary’s resources, as well as members of the community - local residents, industry representatives, environmental interest groups and researchers. These stakeholders work together to identify problems in the estuary, evaluate various management options, develop specific actions to address those problems and create and implement a formal management plan to restore and protect the estuary. 1.2 History of Tidal Limits Historically, tidal limits have been marked on parish maps or topographic maps. They were generally based on a lands surveyor visiting a site and estimating the limit of tidal influence on that particular day. However, there was no detail as to how or when the limits were determined and the information was very sporadic. In some areas many creeks had a tidal limit marked but in other areas no information on the tidal limit was provided. MHL1286 - 1 1.3 No Reliable Tidal Limit Data At the start of the project the only resources available to MHL were an old listing of tidal limits provided by the Department of Land and Water Conservation (DLWC) and the latest set of 1:25,000 topographic maps produced by Land and Property Information. The listing titled Description of Tidal Limits for NSW Estuaries was obtained from the former Lands Department. It contained the names of four hundred and twenty-three ‘ water features’ , with a parish and county reference and then a description and file reference. The comments were often obscure, referring to portion numbers and road reserves, and the files could not be traced. Some of the water features are now either known by a different name or the name is now spelt differently. Therefore, as part of this project cross-references were made between the water features listed in the Lands Department document, old parish maps and the latest topographic maps to ensure that this historical information could be included in the current listing in this report. In the majority of cases the tidal limit was resurveyed by MHL. However, approximately twenty of the water features listed in this historical document were either too small to justify being resurveyed or their ocean entrances were not open at a convenient time. In these cases the data from the original document has been included in this listing but in the date column the word historical has been used to indicate its origin. As no other information is available for these watercourses the historical details from the original list have been included in this report. The tidal information shown on the topographic maps was also not representative in the majority of cases. For instance, the tidal limit on the Clyde River is marked on the topographic map at Shallow Crossing and yet the tidal range at this point is nearly half a metre on spring tides. The tidal limit is actually 4.2 km upstream from Shallow Crossing. On the Manning River local knowledge suggested that the tidal limit occurred at Abbotts Falls but it turned out to be at Basin Ford a further 1.6 km upstream. 1.4 Need to Better Define the Tidal Limit Around 1995 it became apparent that there was no reliable information to accurately define tidal limits for all of the NSW estuaries. During this time there was appreciable growth in community-based estuary management committees preparing and implementing sustainable management plans with the support of the Estuary Management Program.