Catchment landuse has been shown to influence all aspects of stream ecosystem health, from water quality to ecosystem processes and biodiversity. To further explore its influence on water quality we investigated the spatial and temporal variation in water quality parameters including pH, conductivity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, total nitrogen, total phosphorus and dissolved organic carbon in 18 catchments from South-east Queensland. Using principal component analysis, we found the first three components contributed 63% and 52% to water quality variation in South-East Queensland streams in both spring and autumn, respectively. Multiple regression models of the relationship between water quality and landuse at catchment and 25m-riparian width scales showed positive correlations between nitrogen concentration and cropland at both catchment and riparian scales in spring and between total phosphate content and catchment cropland in autumn. The findings therefore suggest land use management for water quality protection is both spatial scale and seasonal dependent.