Donnelly River - Palings Road

River condition at the Palings Road site (site code: DR174DONN1, site reference: 6081063) on the Donnelly River has been assessed on several occasions.  The most recent assessment was between 4–5 February 2020.

Healthy Rivers assessments are conducted using standard methods from the South West Index of River Condition (SWIRC), which incorporates field and desktop data from the site and from the broader catchment. Field data collected include the following indicators, assessed over about a 100 m length of stream:

• Aquatic biota: fish and crayfish community information (abundance of native and exotic species across size classes, general reproductive and physical condition)
• Water quality: dissolved oxygen, temperature, specific conductivity, and pH (logged in-situ over 24 hours), as well as laboratory samples for colour, alkalinity, turbidity and nutrients
• Aquatic habitat: e.g. water depth, substrate type, presence of woody debris and detritus, type and cover of macrophytes and draping vegetation
• Physical form: channel morphology, bank slope and shape, bioconnectivity (barriers to migration of aquatic species), erosion and sedimentation
• Fringing zone: width and length of vegetation cover within the river corridor and lands immediately adjacent, structural intactness of riparian and streamside vegetation
• Hydrology: measures of flow (velocity) at representative locations (compared against data from stream gauging stations within the system)
• Local land use: descriptions of local land use types and activities (compared against land use mapping information for the catchment)

Previous Healthy Rivers assessments, as well as any known third-party assessments, are listed below, and assessment methods have been specified given variations between surveys.

Other departmental data: The Palings Road site is downstream of the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation’s (the department) flow gauging station known as Chappells Bridge (site reference: 608028), which has been in operation since 2016. The site is also about 28 km upstream of the Strickland gauging station (site reference: 608151), which has been in operation since the 1940s.

Search the site code or site reference in the department’s Water Information Reporting (WIR) system to find data for this site and nearby sampling points (flows, surface water quality, groundwater monitoring, the department's meteorological data). See also the Bureau of Meteorology website for additional meteorological data for the area.

The species expected to occur at the Palings Road site are based on species found at the site and elsewhere within the wider subcatchment. As differences in habitat within a reach naturally influence species distributions, and variability in methods between sampling programs can affect the species caught, this list is only indicative.

Note: collection of fauna from inland aquatic ecosystems across Western Australia requires a licence from the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) and the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA). All species collected must be reported to these agencies as part of licence conditions.

Only freshwater fish and crayfish that typically inhabit river channels are targeted by the standard SWIRC sampling methods, however other species are sometimes captured or observed.  The following species were detected at the site:

• Carter’s freshwater mussels (Westralunio carteri) were observed at the site during in 2017, 2018, and 2019. This species is the sole endemic freshwater mussel species in Western Australia and currently listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) red list of threatened species (because of declining range, which is largely attributed to the effects of salinity).

For more information on these and other aquatic species, please see the River Science fauna page.