Pimpama Catchment Facts

  • Total area: 171km2
  • Stream network length: 389km
  • Local Councils: Gold Coast City Council
  • Dominant land uses: native bush, urban, grazing, intensive agriculture
  • Dominated by intensive agriculture along the middle reaches
  • Urban development, including canal estates, expanding throughout the lower catchment

Coomera Catchment Facts

  • Total area: 489km2
  • Stream network length: 928km
  • Local Councils: Beaudesert (pop. 62,441), Gold Coast (pop. 472,279)
  • Dominant land uses: native bush, rural residential, grazing, urban
  • Headwaters rise in Lamington National Park and remain largely intact
  • Mid reaches flow through rural areas
  • Urban development, including canal estates, expanding throughout the lower catchment, with the possibility of disturbance to acid sulphate soils

Freshwater results

B+  Pimpama/Coomera Catchment *

  • Streams generally in good condition.
  • An increase in nutrient cycling offset by decreases in ecosystem processes and physical/chemical indicators.

Estuarine results

Pimpama Estuary

  • Decreased phytoplankton concentration offset by low dissolved oxygen concentration.
  • Continued high nitrogen concentration.

C+
B-  Coomera Estuary

  • Biological health increased slightly, but offset by increased nutrients and phytoplankton concentration.