Taylor Inlet

	Taylor Inlet at a glance
	Catchment area:		10 square kilometres
	Average annual rainfall over catchment:		850 - 900 millimetres
	River length:		Two kilometres
	Inlet size:		50 hectares
	Percentage cleared:		70%
	Data selection

      


Taylor Inlet is a small coastal lagoon that opens onto the western end of Nanarup Beach about seven kilometres east of Oyster Harbour. The inlet is roughly kidney shaped and is about 1100 metres long and 400 metres wide and is oriented in a northeast to southwest direction behind the coastal dunes, more or less parallel to Nanarup Beach. The bar of the inlet may break naturally or may be artificially breached. Artificial breaching began in the 1890s to allow seawater in for oyster cultivation and nowadays the bar is breached to prevent localised flooding and saltwater intrusion into bores and occasionally to encourage fish recruitment. The original vegetation cover consisted of jarrah low forest and jarrah woodland to the north, mallee-heath on Mt Taylor-Mt Richard, coastal dune scrub and heath along the coastal dunes and dense salt tolerant paperbark woodland and sea rushes fringing the inlet, much of which has been cleared.

One small creeks drains the eastern and north-eastern foot of Mt Taylor-Mt Richard entering the inlet from the west, and two small creeks drain the lateritic sandplain to the north of the inlet entering the Inlet from the north. The total length of stream channels is about two kilometres.

Profiles of salinity, dissolved oxygen, and temperature against water depth for Taylor Inlet site TAY01 for April and August 1999. Features to note are that in April the water column was well mixed as far as salinity and temperature were concerned with a slight decrease in dissolved oxygen at the bottom. In August however the water was slightly stratified with respect to salinity (and secondarily in respect of temperature) and consequently the dissolved oxygen was quite low at the bottom.

Profiles of salinity, dissolved oxygen, and temperature against water depth for Taylor Inlet site TAY02 for April and August 1999. Features to note are that in April the water column was well mixed as far as salinity and temperature were concerned with a slight decrease in dissolved oxygen at the bottom. In August however the water was slightly stratified with respect to salinity (and secondarily in respect of temperature) and consequently the dissolved oxygen was quite low at the bottom. Furthermore the water level had increased by about a metre between April and August and the temperature had fallen significantly.

Further Information:

South Coast Regional Land and Water Care Strategy: The Albany Hinterland Sub-region. Prepared by the South Coast Regional Assessment Panel and the South Coast Regional Initiative Planning Team: December 1996