The Bellinger-Kalang catchment is located on Gumbaynggirr Country in the Bellingen Shire on the Mid North Coast of NSW. Over half of the catchment is forested (either State Forest, National Park, or Nature Reserve) and highly valued for its waterways, cultural heritage, drinking water resource, recreational use, aquaculture, irrigation, biodiversity, and ecosystem services.
We developed Water Quality Management Plan for the Bellinger River catchment as an outcome of the Bellingen Coastal Management Programme (CMP) which sets the long-term strategy for the coordinated management of the Bellingen Shire coastline and estuaries. It included analysis of river flow data, Bellingen Riverwatch reports, bi-annual water quality surveys, and historic monitoring in 2010 and 2016 captured under the Ecohealth Program. We identified poor Water Quality hotspots, which included modelling of runoff loads using the SWAT catchment model. A range of mitigation actions were developed that included planning, management, and engineering options (the latter including the design of bank protection structures and remediation projects).
