This is the largest tributary of Shoal Creek and drains about 2 square miles of residential areas, the Brentwood, Abercrombie and Crestview neighborhoods.

The creek flows into Lady Bird Lake (the Colorado River) between Nueces Street and West Avenue, after running past the Central Branch of the Austin Public Library.

The Hancock (or Handcock) brothers, beginning around 1845, owned a huge tract spanning the creek, which stretched from what is now 45th street north about 2 miles to include the Allandale neighborhood.

[11] In the 1850s, Governor Elisha M. Pease acquired a 365-acre tract west of downtown, including some of the Shoal Creek watershed, which he named Woodlawn Plantation.

After the Civil War, General George Armstrong Custer, commanding the 2nd Wisconsin and the 7th Indiana Cavalry, was assigned to Austin in late 1865 and early 1866 as part of Reconstruction[7] and intended to use Governor Pease’s house, named Woodlawn, as his headquarters.

So we collect the water at inlets and concrete pipes and send it straight to the creek.” [14] The City of Austin, perhaps in the 1950s, moved a "honeymoon cottage" that had belonged to O. Henry from the east side of downtown to a location along Shoal Creek near Gaston Avenue.

[9] In May 2018, an elevated bank collapsed near 24th Street after heavy rains, which resulted in the closure of a segment of the just trail north of Pease Park.

By January 2020, repair work stalled out due to an impasse between the city and the nearby property owners [16] Population in the watershed was 59,011 in 2000 and is projected to be 78,759 in 2030.

[18] The lower boundary of the Del Rio is “gradational” (not sharply defined) with the Georgetown Limestone, and the transition occurs through one to two meters (several feet).

[18] Springs are present all over Austin because porous rock (the Buda Formation, and Edwards Plateau limestone, farther west) covers thick clays/shales (for instance, the Del Rio claystone) which are more impervious to water.

University of Texas students discovered a fossil ichthysaurus on upper Shoal Creek near Northwest District Park during an archaeological dig.

[13] A study of samples taken up and down the watershed from September 1994 to April 1995 found that, as expected in a creek running mostly on a limestone bottom, calcium bicarbonate is present in the water.

The organization iNaturalist, a joint initiative by the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society, posts online lists of species observed or collected in or near Shoal Creek.

Plants: Trees include Ulmus crassifolia (Cedar Elm), Quercus fusiformis (Texas live oak), Ungnadia speciosa (Mexican buckeye), Melia azedarach (Chinaberry), Acer negundo (boxelder maple), Ipomopsis rubra (standing cypress), Prosopis glandulosa (honey mesquite), Sophora secundiflora (Texas mountain laurel), Platanus occidentalis (American sycamore), Sapindus saponaria (Western soapberry), Juniperus ashei (Ashe juniper), Taxodium distichum (Bald cypress), Cercis canadensis (Eastern Redbud), Eriobotrya japonica (Loquat), Magnolia grandiflora (Southern Magnolia), Triadica sebifera (Chinese Tallow), Punica granatum (Pomegranate), Quercus stellata (Post Oak), Quercus muehlenbergii (Chinkapin Oak), Albizia julibrissin (Persian Silk Tree), Morus rubra (Red Mulberry), Ulmus americana (American Elm), Ailanthus altissima (Tree of Heaven), Morus alba (White Mulberry), Quercus phellos (Willow Oak), Cordia boissieri (Texas Wild Olive), Prunus mexicana (Mexican Plum), Quercus falcata (Southern Red Oak), Diospyros texana (Texas Persimmon), and Quercus shumardii (Shumard's Oak).

[30] Invertebrates Crustaceans: Aquatic animals include Procambarus clarkii (Red Swamp Crayfish) and the amphipod Talitroides topitotum (Tramp Hopper).

[25][26][27][28] Insects Butterflies and moths: Papilio polyxenes (Black Swallowtail), Hylephila phyleus (Fiery Skipper), Agraulis vanillae (Gulf Fritillary), Libytheana carinenta (American Snout), Strymon melinus (Gray Hairstreak), Zerene cesonia (Southern Dogface), Hyphantria cunea (Fall Webworm Moth), and Petrophila jaliscalis, the "Jalisco Petrophila.

[31] Walkingsticks: Anisomorpha ferruginea (Northern Two-striped Walkingstick)[25][26][27][28] Hymenoptera: Polistes exclamans (Guinea Paper Wasp), Sceliphron caementarium (Black-and-yellow Mud Dauber), Apis mellifera (Western Honey Bee), Xylocopa virginica (Eastern Carpenter Bee), Pseudomyrmex gracilis (Graceful Twig Ant), Solenopsis invicta (Red Imported Fire Ant).

Pigeon), Zenaida asiatica (White-winged Dove), Cyanocitta cristata (Blue Jay), Sturnus vulgaris (European Starling), Passer domesticus (House Sparrow), Cardinalis cardinalis (Northern Cardinal), Thryothorus ludovicianus (Carolina Wren), Nyctanassa violacea (Yellow-crowned Night-Heron), Lanius ludovicianus (Loggerhead Shrike), Melanerpes carolinus (Red-bellied Woodpecker), Aix sponsa (Wood Duck), Corvus brachyrhynchos (American Crow), Myiopsitta monachus (Monk Parakeet), Bombycilla cedrorum (Cedar Waxwing), and many others.

[25][26][27][28] The Shoal Creek Nature Conservancy conducted a bird walk in 2014 and saw or heard the following species: Wood Duck, Green Heron, Red-shouldered Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Spotted Sandpiper, Rock Pigeon, White-winged Dove, Mourning Dove, Chimney Swift, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Great Crested Flycatcher (heard), Blue Jay, Barn Swallow, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Northern Mockingbird, European Starling, Cedar Waxwing, Orange-crowned Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Clay-colored Sparrow, Lincoln’s Sparrow (heard), Summer Tanager, Northern Cardinal, Great-tailed Grackle, Lesser Goldfinch, House Sparrow.

[36] Mammals: Listed by iNaturalist: Sciurus niger (Fox squirrel), Odocoileus virginianus (White-tailed Deer), Canis latrans (Coyote), Didelphis virginiana (Virginia Opossum), Procyon lotor (Common Raccoon), Mephitis mephitis (Striped Skunk), Otospermophilus variegatus (Rock Squirrel), Oryctolagus cuniculus (European Rabbit), and Rattus norvegicus (Brown Rat).

[25][26][27][28] The City of Austin is located in "Flash Flood Alley," an area of Texas that may be subject to intense rain caused by moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, cold fronts from the north and masses of air from the west.

In fiscal year 2017, the city began a preliminary engineering study for a project to correct multiple defects in the drainage infrastructure in this area.

On Friday, May 4, 2018, heavy rains caused part of the canyon to collapse near the 2500 block of North Lamar along the west bluff of Shoal Creek.

Mike Kelly, Austin Watershed managing engineer, said that the bluff above Shoal Creek is made of Buda limestone over an unstable Del Rio clay formation.

In addition to rebuilding bridges, increasing the size of culverts and ditches and turning flooded properties into open space, the city built some large projects.

In 2014, the Watershed Protection Department, based on a study proposal made by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1991, suggested a 26-foot diameter tunnel that would run 6,000 feet from 19th Street to the lake at an estimated cost of $133 million.

In a 2016 press release, it urged the City Council to “only consider solutions that do no [sic] alienate any dedicated parkland” and to not waste taxpayer dollars on “studying a flood control system that will be dead on arrival and never built.”[9] The Conservancy noted that the land was stipulated to be a park, so therefore “taking portions of the park for other divergent uses could violate the terms of that deed and be certain to subject the City to costly litigation.”[9] Another way to control floods would be to retain the floodwaters upstream.

While chronic pollution in the creek is perhaps not a tractable problem due to its location in an urban area, the City's Watershed Protection Department attends to reports of spilled substances quickly.

Besides the aforementioned block and this, it is possible to commute entirely using the trail from 38th to Lady Bird Lake, however, some portions are fairly risky for bikers, due to their narrow width and cave embankments restricting height above.

The Task Force's report noted that near Lady Bird Lake, the creek is usually confined to its channel, and also that there is room for significant improvement in the stream's appearance.