Point Sturt and Districts Landcare Group Inc: Murray River
Bottle number: 112
About the water
Collected at: The Southern side of the Point Sturt Peninsula, Lower Murray, South Australia
E: 314799, N: 6069697, Zone 54
Collected by: Point Sturt and Districts Landcare Group Inc.
Property owners are members of Point Sturt and District Landcare Group.
Water quality:
| Turbidity: | NTU ~ 45 |
| pH: | 8.0 |
| Nitrates: | less than 0.5mg/L |
| Salinity: | 8720µS/cm |
| Phosphates: | 2.0mg/L |
| Dissolved oxygen: | 5.4mg/L |
About the site
Grazing land with stock excluded from lake shore for more than 5 years.
Water has receded from normal lake edge by more than 200 metres due to current dire situation in Lower Lakes.
There is no flow in the river and barrages have not been open for a number of years meaning there has been no flushing effect and salinity levels have increased from a normal range about 1000EC to that measured.
What's going on:
Reeds have been planted, stock excluded, strategic grazing of hinterland.
Receding Lake Shoreline means much of fringing vegetation is now divorced from water body and not available as habitat.
Lake is shallower and dries out in region of sampling with strong westerly winds causing seiche of 50cm.
Many trials and observations made by CSIRO in an attempt to understand acidification. In particular sea water vs. fresh water inundation.
Fencing of the Shoreline to exclude stock from the water body.
Revegetation of the property with native species.
Planting of pasture crops.
Before the Lake receded extensive trials were carried out to reduce Lake shore erosion when the Lake was at pool level or supercharge level.