The Goodga River is a
river
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...
in the
Great Southern region of
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
.
The river is located within the boundaries of
Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve
Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve is a protected area managed by the Department of Parks and Wildlife east of Albany, Western Australia. The area is accessible by 2WD vehicles. The bay itself, including two small secluded beaches, faces due eas ...
about east of
Albany.
The river rises to the north of Reservoir Hill and flows in a southerly direction until it discharges into Moates Lake. This lake drains into Gardner Lake and eventually into
Two Peoples Bay.
The average rainfall in the catchment area is , with most falling in the winter months. The catchment mostly consists of
Albany blackbutt
''Eucalyptus staeri'', commonly known as Albany blackbutt, is a species of small tree or a mallee and is endemic to the south-west corner of Western Australia. It has rough bark on the trunk and branches, thick, lance-shaped adult leaves, flo ...
(''Eucalyptus staeri'') and
sheoak (''Allocasuarina fraseriana'') forest. Approximately one third of the catchment has been cleared for agriculture.
The name was first recorded in 1913 by a surveyor and is thought to be of
Aboriginal origin.
A weir was built along the river in 1964 to measure stream flow; a fish way was built in 2000 to allow fish to
migrate upstream of the weir.
[
The river is home to the endangered fish, the trout minnow ('' Galaxias truttaceus''), which only occurs between the Goodga and the ]Angove River
Angove River or Angove Creek is a river located in the Great Southern region of Western Australia most of the river is found within Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve.
The stream was seen in 1898 by surveyor William Angove, and was named after hi ...
. In 2003, the first vertical slot fishway
A fish ladder, also known as a fishway, fish pass, fish steps, or fish cannon is a structure on or around artificial and natural barriers (such as dams, locks and waterfalls) to facilitate diadromous fishes' natural migration as well as move ...
in Western Australia was installed in the river.
References
Rivers of the Great Southern region
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