Darling River
Darling River | |
---|---|
Menindee, Wentworth | |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | confluence of Barwon and Culgoa Rivers |
• location | near Brewarrina, NSW |
• coordinates | 29°57′31″S 146°18′28″E / 29.95861°S 146.30778°E |
• elevation | 119 m (390 ft) |
Mouth | confluence with Murray River |
• location | Wentworth, NSW |
• coordinates | 34°6′47″S 141°54′43″E / 34.11306°S 141.91194°E |
• elevation | 35 m (115 ft) |
Length | 1,472 km (915 mi) |
Basin size | 609,283 km2 (235,245 sq mi) |
Discharge | |
• average | 100 m3/s (3,500 cu ft/s) approx. |
Basin features | |
Murray-Darling basin | |
Tributaries | |
• left | Barwon River, Little Bogan River |
• right | Culgoa River, Warrego River, Paroo River |
The Darling River (Paakantyi: Baaka or Barka) is the third-longest river in Australia, measuring 1,472 kilometres (915 mi) from its source in northern New South Wales to its confluence with the Murray River at Wentworth. Including its longest contiguous tributaries it is 2,844 km (1,767 mi) long, making it the longest river system in Australia.[1] The Darling River is the outback's most famous waterway.[2]
The Darling is in poor health,[3] suffering from over-allocation of its waters to irrigation,[4][5] pollution from pesticide runoff,[6][7] and prolonged drought. During drought periods in 2019 it barely flowed at all. The river has a high salt content and declining water quality. Increased rainfall in its catchment in 2010 improved its flow, but the health of the river will depend on long-term management.[8]
The
History
Aboriginal peoples have lived along the Darling River for tens of thousands of years. The
The Queensland headwaters of the Darling (the area now known as the Darling Downs) were gradually colonized from 1815 onward. In 1828 the explorers Charles Sturt and Hamilton Hume were sent by the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Ralph Darling, to investigate the course of the Macquarie River. He visited the Bogan River and then, early in 1829, the upper Darling, which he named after the Governor. In 1835, Major Thomas Mitchell travelled a 483-kilometre (300 mi) portion of the Darling River.[10] Although his party never reached the junction with the Murray River he correctly assumed the rivers joined.
In 1856, the
Although its flow is extraordinarily irregular (the river dried up forty-five times between 1885 and 1960), in the later 19th century the Darling became a major transportation route, the
In 1992, the Darling River suffered from a severe cyanobacterial bloom that stretched the length of the river.[12] The presence of phosphorus was essential for the toxic algae to flourish. Flow rates, turbulence, turbidity and temperature were other contributing factors.
In 2008, the Federal government purchased
In 2019, a crisis on the Lower Darling saw up to 1 million fish die. A report by the
A worse fish kill occurred in 2023. Millions of dead bony bream, golden perch and silver perch, and Murray cod flowed down the river at Menindee.[15] The cause was low oxygen levels and high temperatures.[15]
Course
The whole
Much of the land that the Darling flows through are plains and is therefore relatively flat, having an average gradient of just 16 mm per kilometre.[17] Officially the Darling begins between Brewarrina and Bourke at the confluence of the Culgoa and Barwon rivers; streams whose tributaries rise in the ranges of southern Queensland and northern New South Wales west of the Great Dividing Range. These tributaries include the Balonne River (of which the Culgoa is one of three main branches) and its tributaries; the Condamine [which rises in the Main Range about 100 km inland from Pt. Danger, on the Queensland/New South Wales border], the Macintyre River and its tributaries such as the Dumaresq River and the Severn Rivers (there are two – one on either side of the state border); the Gwydir River; the Namoi River; the Castlereagh River; and the Macquarie River. Other rivers join the Darling near Bourke or below – the Bogan River, the Warrego River and Paroo River.
South east of
Weirs and constant low flows have fragmented the river system and blocked fish passage.The Darling River runs south-south-west, leaving the Far West region of New South Wales, to join the Murray River on the New South Wales – Victoria border at Wentworth, New South Wales.
The
The north of the Darling River is in the Southeast Australia temperate savanna ecoregion and the southwest of the Darling is part of the Murray Darling Depression ecoregion.
Population centres
Major settlements along the river include Brewarrina,
Navigation by
In popular culture
Australian poet Henry Lawson wrote a well-known ironic tribute to the Darling River.[19] To quote another Henry Lawson poem:
The skies are brass and the plains are bare,
Death and ruin are everywhere;
And all that is left of the last year's flood
Is a sickly stream on the grey-black mud;
The salt-springs bubble and the quagmires quiver,
And this is the dirge of the Darling River.— Henry Lawson
He also wrote about the river in
The Australian band Midnight Oil wrote a song called "The Barka-Darling River" for their album Resist, drawing attention to the negative effects of cotton farming on the environment and people connected to the river.
Gallery
-
The Darling River from Bourke wharf (2010)
-
Old North Bourke Bridge, opened in 1883 (2014)
-
Lifting span of the old North Bourke Bridge
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Old North Bourke bridge, in flood, northern side, North Bourke (2021)
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Old North Bourke bridge, in flood, southern side, North Bourke (2021)
See also
- Darling River hardyhead
- Great Darling Anabranch
- List of rivers of Australia § New South Wales
- List of Darling River distances
- Water security in Australia
- Darling Sedimentary Basin
References
- ^ "(Australia's) Longest Rivers". Geoscience Australia. 16 October 2008. Retrieved 16 February 2009.
- ^ a b c Sally Macmillan (24 January 2009). "Darling River townships offer historic route". The Courier-Mail. Queensland Newspapers. Archived from the original on 12 June 2012. Retrieved 30 October 2010.
- ^ "Challenges facing the Murray–Darling Basin". Murray-Darling Basin Authority. 24 September 2020. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
- ^ DAVIES, Anne (3 August 2021). "NSW exceeds Barwon-Darling water allocations in first year of compliance after regime overhaul". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
- ^ McCORMICK, Bill. "Murray-Darling Basin water issues". Parliamentary Library. Commonwealth of Australia. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
- ^ "Two thirds of farmland at risk of pesticide pollution". University of Sydney. 30 March 2021. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
- ^ Nearmy, Tracey (24 October 2019). "Thirst turns to anger as Australia's mighty river runs dry". Reuters. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
- ^ "Anger grows in Australia as the Darling River dries up". mercurynews.com. 23 October 2019.
- ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
The Darling River, known locally as the Baaka, is central to Barkindji culture
- ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
- ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 31 January 2011.
- ^ "Algal Blooms". CSIRO Land and Water. 28 January 2011. Archived from the original on 2 April 2011. Retrieved 15 March 2011.
- ^ Franklin, Matthew (9 January 2010). "Wong slaps down critics of $23m Darling River water purchase". The Australian. News Limited. Retrieved 30 October 2010.
- ^ "New South Wales government largely culpable for fish kill, report finds". The Guardian. 18 January 2019. Archived from the original on 28 March 2023.
- ^ a b Ormonde, Bill; Stonehouse, Greta (18 March 2023). "Millions of fish dead in the worst mass kill ever to hit Menindee region, in NSW's far west". ABC News. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
- ^ "Surface Water Resources". Murray Darling Basin Commission. 29 October 2006. Archived from the original on 19 February 2011. Retrieved 31 January 2011.
- ^ a b "The Darling River". Central Darling Shire Council. Archived from the original on 15 February 2011. Retrieved 30 October 2010.
- ^ a b "Menindee Lakes". Discovering the Darling. Murray Darling Environmental Foundation. Archived from the original on 3 April 2011. Retrieved 16 January 2012.
- ^ Lawson, Henry. "The Darling River". Classic Reader. Retrieved 28 May 2008.
- ^ "The Darling River". Bourke Shire Council. Archived from the original on 16 February 2011. Retrieved 31 January 2011.
External links
Darling River.
- "Macquarie-Bogan River catchment" (map). Office of Environment and Heritage. Government of New South Wales.
- "Barwon, Darling and Far Western catchments" (map). Office of Environment and Heritage. Government of New South Wales.
- "A river runs through it" Archived 30 December 2012 at Daily Telegrapharticle – 6 June 2007
- Photos of the Darling/Barwon river between Brewarrina and Bourke, taken over 2003–2006. Flickr