Bacterial water quality at monitored freshwater swimming spots, 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 summers

The map shows the monitoring results of the 2007–2008 and 2008–2009 summers season for water quality in lakes and rivers for contact recreation.

The map uses a colour guide to show the proportion of samples from each testing site that comply with guidelines for safe levels of E. coli for contact recreation (ie, swimming).
The five classes are:

1. not sufficiently sampled
2. 95 to 100 per cent of samples comply (ie, water quality is suitable for swimming almost all the time)
3. 90 to less than 95 per cent of samples comply
4. 75 to less than 90 per cent of samples comply
5. less than 75 per cent of samples comply (ie, water quality is often unsuitable for swimming).

The map shows that sites are distributed throughout the country with good and poor sites appearing in every region. The poorest sites generally appear close to the coast (ie, they are downstream sites in lowland areas).

View the average compliance with the guidelines for the 2007–2008 and 2008–2009 summers in this spreadsheet.