Physico-chemical and key metal data for surface waters and sediments of the Sydney and Hawkesbury estuaries, Australia

Abstract This article contains general physico-chemical data (salinity, pH, redox potential, temperature, dissolved oxygen, suspended particulate matter (SPM), dissolved organic carbon and chlorophyll a concentrations) for surface waters at 15 near-pristine sites in the Hawkesbury Estuary and 24 sites (encompassing a wide range of metal contamination) in the highly urbanized Sydney Estuary, south-eastern Australia. Data on concentrations of five key metals (cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn)) in filtered ( 0.2 μm) and surface sediments (