A NSW Government website

Air quality monitoring in the Lower Hunter and on the Central Coast

We monitor air quality in the Lower Hunter region across the Lower Hunter and Newcastle local networks and at stations in the Lake Macquarie and Central Coast regions.

 

The Lower Hunter region is located along the NSW east coast, about 120 km north-north-east of Sydney. It includes the city of Newcastle and the Port of Newcastle, the largest bulk shipping port on the east coast of Australia and one of largest coal export ports in the world.

Our air quality monitoring in the Lower Hunter region includes 2 larger networks:

  • the Lower Hunter Air Quality Monitoring network in suburban areas
  • the Newcastle Local Air Quality Monitoring network in the centre of Newcastle.

We also conduct air quality monitoring in the Lake Macquarie region, at Morisset station, and at Wyong in the peri-urban region of the Central Coast.

Download the network site information (XLSX 44KB).

Lower Hunter Air Quality Monitoring Network

Monitoring stations at Newcastle, Beresfield and Wallsend make up the Lower Hunter Air Quality Monitoring Network.

Newcastle Local Air Quality Monitoring Network

The monitoring stations at Carrington, Mayfield and Stockton make up the Newcastle Local Air Quality Monitoring Network.

These stations were set up in 2014, following studies by the then OEH (now the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water) and the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) and advice from NSW Health’s Air Pollution Expert Advisory Committee.

The station locations were nominated by the Newcastle Community Consultative Committee on the Environment.

To comply with statutory requirements, data from these fully industry-funded stations is not included in the reports that the department publishes.

Reporting

Hourly reports

Using data from the stations at Newcastle, Beresfield, Wallsend and Wyong, we provide hourly values of pollutant concentrations. Carrington, Mayfield and Stockton stations are fully industry funded and the measurements are available from the datafeed map.

Annual reports

You can find more air quality information for the Newcastle and Central Coast region in the department's annual air quality monitoring reports.

Newsletters

Seasonal air quality newsletters are published for the Newcastle and Central Coast region.

Research studies

Recent research studies which have expanded the evidence base on the composition and sources of particle pollution in the region have included the: