The dataset contains information on aquatic macroinvertebrates that has been collected under the Monitoring River Health Project (1994-2000), the Sustainable Rivers Audit (2002-2012) and the Monitoring Evaluating and Reporting (MER) program (2006 ongoing) across the whole of NSW. The data were collected using the AUSRIVAS protocols (available at http://ausrivas.canberra.edu.au/Bioassessment/Macroinvertebrates/) which includes in situ water quality measurements, site habitat assessment and macroinvertebrate data. The dataset has a latitude and longitude and site access information for every sample site.