Remote Smart Water Quality Sensor Monitor Launched!

On Friday 14 May 2021, Revive Lake Cathie launched our Remote Smart Water Quality Sensor Monitor into the Lake Innes Nature Reserve.

The Remote Smart Water Quality Sensor Monitor is a collaboration between Revive Lake Cathie, Southern Cross University (SCU), Local, State & Federal Governments in delivery of the Australian Federal Government's Community Environment Program & NSW State Governments My Community Project.

The Remote Smart Water Quality Sensor Monitor (RSWQM) is an initiative of Revive Lake Cathie in collaboration with Southern Cross University (SCU) Geoscience Departments Associate Professor Damien Maher and his team. NSW DPIE – Biodiversity Conservation and Science, NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPIE) – National Parks & Wildlife Lake Innes Nature Reserve staff assisted with licenses, approvals, funding and ongoing telecommunication availability. Port Macquarie-Hastings Council Environmental Department in hosting the data platform to store the water quality data and ongoing maintenance and monitoring.

The Remote Smart Water Quality Sensor Monitor provides a transparent understanding of water quality and depth of water levels in Lake Innes, frequency in water testing results through the day of Ph, Oxygen, water temp, conductivity, salinity, turbidity and water levels every 30 minutes.

"Following the recent flooding event, chemical pollutants are very evident on the surface of the Lake, the mixing of the fertilizers and detergents (surfactants) below the surface combined with the presence of acid sulfate soil contamination is causing absolute carnage for the entire system." said Revive Lake Cathie’s Marine Biologist Dr Deb Geronimi.

Revive Lake Cathie’s NSW Waterwatch program is a citizen science program where volunteers are trained in taking water samples, performing chemical testing and collating data by NSW Waterwatch scientists with data qualified before being made available to the public. Revive Lake Cathie Volunteers are guided by Revive Lake Cathie’s Environmental Scientist Peter Fitzroy with results qualified by Revive Lake Cathie’s Marine Biologist Dr Deb Geronimi.

Revive Lake Cathie’s testing results are available via Revive Lake Cathie’s website. Access to these results is to provide both the community, scientists, researchers, various government agencies and school students access with understand what is happening in the lake factually. 

 We would like to extend our thanks and acknowledge the exceptional and tireless work of our amazing Board Member Kate Aston. The remote sensor simply would not be here without her commitment to our lake.