The Flaxbourne catchment is located in the South-East of the region. It receives comparatively little rainfall causing river flows to be low. During dry summers, parts of the river and its tributary streams run dry with flow only continuing within the river gravels.
Very little native vegetation remains in the catchment. More than 80% of the catchment area has been converted to pasture, grazed by sheep and beef cattle. In the lower parts of the catchment, small areas of vineyard and cropping are also present.
The Flaxbourne River has been monitored as part of the State of the Environment programme since 2007. This monitoring has shown that river health is degraded.
Parts of the Flaxbourne catchment flow into a shallow coastal lake, Lake Elterwater. Although the lake has an outlet that flows into the Flaxbourne River, the outlet very rarely contains flowing water. Lake Elterwater is mostly less than one meter deep and has dried up completely in the past.
In order to better understand surface water quality in the catchment, additional monitoring was carried out on several sites along the Flaxbourne River, tributary streams and Lake Elterwater. The sites were sampled during baseflow conditions in 2020 and 2021.
