Additional Resources:
Select a monitoring site by clicking a blue circle on the map
Chart Information
These charts display laboratory-analysed pesticide data collected from waterways in Queensland. The visualisations also incorporate remotely captured water level data to provide context for the pesticide concentrations shown.
Pesticide Concentrations: The charts depict concentrations of the specified pesticide in micrograms per litre (µg/L).
Guideline Values: The guideline values (where they exist) for
three different environmental values are included in Pesticide Reporting Portal
and are shown as coloured dashed lines against the left (y) axis. They include,
the Australian Drinking Water (Health) Guideline, The Guideline for the protection
of irrigation waters, and a guideline for the protection of aquatic ecosystem.
Aquatic ecosystems are categorised as High Ecological Value (HEV), Slightly Disturbed (SD),
Moderately Disturbed (MD), or Highly Disturbed (HD). Guideline values provide
concentration thresholds for protecting ≥99% of species (for HEV and SD), >95% of
species (for MD), or >90% / >80% of species for (HD). The Pesticide Reporting Portal
only reports against guideline values for the protection of MD aquatic ecosystems;
i.e. 95% species protection guideline (PC95 guideline)."
Water Level Context: The right axis shows water level data (aggregated to a 4 hourly mean) from the most reliable source available, which may be upstream or downstream of the sampling point. This helps to understand potential factors influencing pesticide movement and dilution.
Treatment of Values Below Limit of Reporting: For graphical convenience, all concentrations below the limit of reporting (i.e. <LOR) have been fixed at a value of 0.005 µg/L. Typical LOR values and their analytical error ranges are reported in Table 1 of the Understanding the Data document.
The Concentration Data are Colour-Coded:
Exceedance of Drinking Water Guideline (Health): >DWG (Health)
Exceedance of Irrigation Guideline: >Irrig
Exceedance of Protection of Moderately Disturbed (MD) Aquatic Ecosystems Guideline: >PC95
Greater than Limit of Reporting (LOR) but less than relevant guideline value: >LOR
Less than LOR: <LOR
Please note: If you're viewing several years worth of data (>3 years), individual data points may become obscured depending on your screen resolution and sampling frequency. Additionally, loading times for data will increase with larger selected timeframes.
Site Status
About Us
The Water Quality and Investigations (WQI) team is responsible for delivering two key water quality monitoring programs:
- Great Barrier Reef Catchment Loads Monitoring Program
- South East Queensland Catchment Loads Monitoring Program
These programs support the monitoring and reporting roles of the Department as part of:
- Reef 2050 Water Quality Improvement Plan
- South East Queensland Natural Resource Management Plan 2009–2031
Beyond these programs, the team is actively involved in environmental investigations, assessments, and analyses relating to pollution events, ecotoxicology, water quality, and aquatic ecosystem health.
Data Access and Transparency
The Queensland Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation supports the transparent provision of environmental data through its open data policy.
The Pesticide Reporting Portal provides access to pesticide monitoring data collected across the eastern coast of Queensland, making it available to government and non-government stakeholders, landholders, managers, and the general public.
Remote-telemetered water level data provide context for investigating the influence of overland flow on pesticide loss under different management scenarios. The portal requires no specialised GIS software or licences.
Understanding the Data
To learn how to interpret the pesticide and water level graphs, including
guideline thresholds and exceedances:
Click Here to See the PDF
Contact Us
For more information about the Great Barrier Reef and South East Queensland Catchment Loads Monitoring Programs, please contact wqi@qld.gov.au
Terms of Use
While every care is taken to ensure the accuracy of this information, the Queensland Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation makes no warranties regarding its accuracy, reliability, completeness, or suitability for any particular purpose. The Department disclaims all responsibility and liability (including negligence) for any expenses, losses, damages, or costs incurred due to inaccurate or incomplete information.
Unless otherwise noted, all copyright material is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0).
Attribution request:
Water Quality & Investigations (2020) Catchment Loads Monitoring Program Pesticide Reporting Portal (Updated May 2024), Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation, Queensland Government, Brisbane, Australia.
Acknowledgements
The WQI team acknowledges all members who contributed to the development of the Pesticide Reporting Portal.
We thank all stakeholders who assisted in water sample collection, including:
- AquaSea Enterprises
- Burdekin Bowen Integrated Floodplain Management Advisory Committee Inc.
- Burnett Catchment Care Association
- Cape York NRM
- Catchment Solutions
- Farmacist
- Fitzroy River Water
- Gulf Savannah NRM
- Johnstone River Catchment Management Association
- Kalpowar Rangers
- Laura Rangers
- Mamu Aboriginal Corporation
- Mary River Catchment Coordinating Committee
- Mulgrave Landcare and Catchment Group Inc.
- Queensland Parks and Wildlife staff
- Reef Catchments
- South Cape York Catchments Inc.
- Tully Sugar Pty Ltd
- WQI staff
- Peter Berger, Noel and Penny Bartley, Simone Boston, Chris Blackburn, Kevin Brignull, Tania Brown, Ray Byrd, Dianne Coulter, Sylvia Conway, Aaron Davis, David Erfurth, Sarah Gibson, Tony Grassick, Peter and Sally Griffiths, Shane Jackson, Gavin Kay, Gary Lay, Tracey Muller, Joe Muscat, Mark Orreal, Colt Pitt, Gillian Ranson, Matt Sammut, Chris Siddle, John Siddle, David Soppa, Tersius Stander, Pieter Taylor, Dan Toon, Michael Vella, Ross Windsor, Tony Wolfe.
We also appreciate the support of Queensland Government catchment modellers, members, partners, and stakeholders of the Reef 2050 WQIP and the Paddock to Reef program.
Special thanks to:
- Pathology Queensland, Queensland Public Health and Scientific Services (Queensland Health, Coopers Plains, Queensland, Australia) for advice and assistance.
- Queensland Government hydrographers for gauging station installation, maintenance, and flow data validation.
- Industry and other Queensland Government departments for advice regarding data analysis and interpretation.
The land use layer is provided by the Queensland Land Use Mapping Program (Qspatial) with land use types defined by the Australian Land Use and Management Classification (V.8).
How to explore these data
Getting Started…
The app interface is split into two main areas:
Right: Leaflet map
- 🔍 Zoom and pan on the map to locate your monitoring site of interest.
- 🔴 Click on a blue circle to select a site.
Left: Controls, plots and site information
- Site Selected: Displays the
name of the chosen site, e.g.,
Barratta Creek at Northcote - Water Level Location:
Displays the station ID and full name, e.g.,
119101A - Barratta Creek at Northcote (WMIP)
Noting not all water quality monitoring sites are equiped with in situ hydrographic monitoring equipment (i.e. water level sensors). In such cases WQI opt to utilise the closest most appropriate water level source as a proxy, primarily for sample timing and decision making processes.
It also provides valuable context while interpreting concentrations. Take care when interpreting charts utilising water level from alternate locations.
- Select Pesticides for Graphical Display:
Choose which pesticides to show in plots.
- Plots will generate at the bottom of the left panel and stack vertically as more are added.
- Select Date Range: Choose the
time period for plotting data.
- Selecting large time periods will result in longer load times.
Once a site is selected and parameters are chosen, the plots on the left load (scroll down). Use the instructions below to explore the charts.
📈 Plotly Help Fact Sheet
💡 Tip: Double-click anywhere on a Plotly chart to reset zoom/pan to the original view. You can also use the Autoscale button in the toolbar.
Interactive charts in this web app utilise the Plotly graphing library. This guide explains how to interact with Plotly charts and quickly find the information you need.
For more detailed walk-through, see the Plotly documentation: Zoom, Pan, and Hover Controls.
✅ Quick Reference
- 🔍 Zoom: Click & drag
- ✋Pan: Hand tool
- ✨Hover: Move mouse over points
- 🎯 Select: Box / Lasso
- ↔ Reset: Double-click / Autoscale
- 📑 Export: Camera icon
🔍 Zoom & ✋ Pan
- Zoom: Click and drag inside the plot area
- Pan: Use the hand tool in the toolbar
- Reset view: Double-click anywhere
✨ Hover Tooltips
- Hover over points, lines, or bars to see details
- Where no hover information appears against a ‘line’, the chart may be interpolating between points where a data gap exists.
- Tooltips often show labels, values, and units
🎯 Highlighting & Selection
- Use box select or lasso select tools to highlight points
↔︎️ Autoscale & Reset
- After zooming, click Autoscale in the toolbar to return to full view
- Or just double-click the plot
- Can also be applied to individual axis by hovering over and double clicking
- Similarly, you may click and drag to manipulate the axis as required
📑 Export Options
- Click the camera icon 📷 in the toolbar to save as PNG
- Export respects zoom, pan, and selections
- Screen resolution and zooming in your browser can affect how the charts are displayed.
- If you find things are overlaying incorrectly or legends/titles are being cut off in export, try adjusting your zoom settings in your browser.
🎥 Example Usage Video
Watch this short demo of how to interact with the app:
Please note:
- This video has no sound
- Auto-scaling is handled by double-click (not shown well in the video).