William Cowper School: Peel River

Collected at: Peel River, Jewry Street Weir, Tamworth, NSW

E: 150.91221785, S: -31.3032149

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Collected by: William Cowper School
Teacher: Linda Wilson
Students: Kate Farquhar, William Chaffey, Andrew Barr, Shane Russell.

William Cowper, through teacher Laurence Tockuss, has developed an ongoing relationship with the site that sees students taking a 'stewardship' approach to it: Laurence has for example organised extensive community tree planting days.

Water quality:

Temperature: 24 degrees Celsius.

ACT Waterwatch says:

This site has all the typical problems of an urban waterway, too many people using it, not enough looking after it. The erosion on the bank shows up in the water as raised turbidity, but the tree planting efforts should help.

Site located on Peel River floodplain in Tamworth – no development on site, used for recreational purposes (fishing, canoeing etc).

Site is highly degraded – active erosion is taking place on the outer bank with subsequent loss of mature native trees; both banks have willows and an assortment of exotic grasses. No understorey development.

Site heavily trafficked with vehicles. However healthy patches of emergent native vegetation (juncus, phragmites) are present.

The site is upstream of a defunct weir. Litter is a serious problem at the site. Tadpoles have been observed along with ducks, native and exotic birds (e.g Myna birds). Gambusia, carp, turtles and native fish species are present.

What's going on:

Mainly tree planting.

Water quality monitoring with Waterwatch and ongoing school and community activities such as those outlined above.