Streamwatch comes to the Australian Museum

The Museum is pleased to announce that we will be taking on Sydney Water Streamwatch program. For the past 20 years Streamwatch has played an important role in investigating and caring for the local environment.

Streamwatch groups, made up of community volunteers, test and monitor the water quality of our local waterways and collect the data. Streamwatch data is used as an early warning system for pollution events and a historical record of how waterways have changed. It may help evaluate the effects of remediation projects and identify local issues so that action can be taken. It may be used by local councils, catchment management authorities, landowners and other land managers.

Karen Player and I have started visiting Streamwatch groups to meet the dedicated volunteers and take part in their water quality monitoring activities with Liz from Sydney Water. We've spent a few mornings out collecting and testing water samples with the groups. It's amazing to see how diligent the volunteers are when sampling, performing tests and interpreting data to ensure the Streamwatch data is accurate and reliable. They are quite the hard working bunch but they didn't forget to share some home baked goodies and have a bit of a laugh too.

With our wealth of expertise and knowledge in the delivery of science, education and research, the Museum will bring fresh enthusiasm to the Streamwatch program. And with our commitment to citizen science programs and history in documenting and tracking wildlife distributions, water quality monitoring will be another avenue to gather valuable data that can help in assessments of environmental sustainability and change.

We're very excited about taking over the Streamwatch program and look forward to working with all the community groups and volunteers.