Our water quality monitoring program has shown Lake Brou to have good water quality. Find out more about the estuary and its unique features.
Lake Brou is located on the south coast of New South Wales. Most of the catchment area for this estuary is in Eurobodalla National Park.
Lake Brou is classed as a back-dune lagoon with an intermittently closed entrance. It is listed as a significant lagoon and forms part of Batemans Marine Park.
As part of our water quality monitoring program we assess the water quality and ecosystem health of an estuary using a range of relevant indicators. We sample a subset of the estuaries between Wollongong and the Victorian border every 3 years. The most recent sampling in Lake Brou was completed over the 2020–21 summer when 2 sites were sampled on a monthly basis.
This report card represents 2 water quality indicators that we routinely measure: the amount of algae present and water clarity. Low levels of these 2 indicators equate with good water quality.
The report card shows the condition of the estuary was fair with:
Find out more about our estuary report cards and what each grade means. Read our sampling, data analysis and reporting protocols and find out how we calculate these grades.
We have monitored water quality in Lake Brou since 2008. This table shows the water quality grades for this estuary over that time.
Grades for algae, water clarity and overall are represented as:
Estuary type: Back-dune lagoon
| Entrance location |
Latitude (ºS) | –36.13 |
|---|---|---|
| Longitude (ºE) | 150.13 | |
| Catchment area (km2) | 41.6 | |
| Estuary area (km2) | 2.5 | |
| Estuary volume (ML) | 2736.1 | |
| Average depth (m) | 1.2 | |
Bathymetric and coastal topography data for this estuary are available in our data portal.
The catchment of Lake Brou is relatively undisturbed with over 90% remaining forested, including a small section of Eurobodalla National Park. Grazing occurs in less than 10% of the catchment.
Local councils manage estuaries within their area unless the estuary is attached to a marine park.
Eurobodalla Shire Council manage this estuary, which is located in Batemans Marine Park.
Lake Brou is home to a number of threatened species of birds that rely on estuaries, including the little tern.
Read more about the biodiversity in our estuaries.