Local residents, school students, scientists and government representatives gathered on board the Free Spirit cruise boat to hear the results of the water quality testing and to see some of the projects council and its partners have invested in over the years.  

The sites around the main body of Wallis Lake have maintained between an A-B for the last four years. 

Meanwhile, the Mid-Wallamba estuary has shown great improvement from a D in 2011 to maintaining a B over the last two years. 

Wallamba Cove was sampled for the first time and scored a C highlighting the ongoing work that is still required to maintain the health of our waterways and limit the amount of nutrients and sediment that flows into them.

The Myall and Karuah Lakes both scored well, however, higher than desired levels of algae in both of these systems are still a concern. 

“The waterways are such an important part of the Great Lakes and I’m very proud to see that we have managed to maintain excellent water quality over many of the sites for the last four years,” Mayor Jan McWilliams said. 

“It is a credit to our community that we have the support to continue the important projects that protect and improve the health of our waterways.”

Council’s environmental projects officer Drew Morris said the day allowed the community to have a detailed insight.  

“Rather than just talk about it we thought this would be a great opportunity to bring the community with us to see for themselves some of the work that’s being done to improve our water quality.” 

The grades are established through tests undertaken by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage at key sites of Wallis Lake, Myall Lakes and Karuah River estuary systems and compared against other NSW waterways to create an overall grade. 

Each site is graded on clarity and the amount of algae present in the water.  These two indicators are used to determine the ecological health of our waterways. Healthy waterways are characterised as ones that have clear water and low levels of algae. 

The full report card is available to view at www.greatlakes.nsw.gov.au or you can contact council to get a hard copy or to find out more about water quality in the Great Lakes.