Barcoo River

Last updated

Barcoo River
Barcoo river, Tambo.JPG
Barcoo River at Tambo, 2012
Lake eyre basin map.png
Map of the Lake Eyre Basin showing Barcoo River
Location
Country Australia
State Queensland
City Blackall, Isisford, Tambo, Queensland
Physical characteristics
Source Warrego Range
 • locationeast of Tambo, Central Queensland
Mouth confluence with the Thomson River
 • location
north of Windorah
Basin features
River system Cooper Creek, Lake Eyre basin
House flooded by the Barcoo River, 1906. StateLibQld 1 101164.jpg
House flooded by the Barcoo River, 1906.
Flood in the Barcoo River, Blackall district, February 1941 StateLibQld 1 120612 Flood in the Barcoo River, Blackall district, February 1941.jpg
Flood in the Barcoo River, Blackall district, February 1941

The Barcoo River in western Queensland, Australia rises on the northern slopes of the Warrego Range, flows in a south-westerly direction and unites with the Thomson River to form Cooper Creek. The first European to see the river was Thomas Mitchell in 1846, who named it Victoria River, [1] believing it to be the same river as that named Victoria River by J. C. Wickham in 1839. It was renamed by Edmund Kennedy after a name supplied by local Aborigines. [2]

Contents

The waters of the river flow towards Lake Eyre in central Australia while those of rivers further east join the Murray-Darling basin and reach the sea in South Australia. The river forms a boundary between outback Australia and the "Far Outback"; legend has it that west of the Barcoo there is very little in the way of civilisation.

Tributaries include the Alice River [3] Towns situated on the banks of the Barcoo River include Blackall, Isisford, Tambo and Retreat. The southern boundary of Welford National Park is marked by the Barcoo River and Isisford Weir has been constructed on the Barcoo.

Barcoo grunter

The Barcoo grunter, also known as jade perch (scortum barcoo), is a native Australian freshwater fish found in the eastern Northern Territory rivers of Limmen, Roper, Macarthur; the Barkley Basin, and between the Gilbert River in Northern Queensland and the Lake Eyre drainage of central Australia. Barcoo Grunter is an excellent food fish, and is often farmed in intensive grow-out ponds or tanks in aquaculture. [4]

Disease

The river, or at least the district, also gives its name to several diseases, once widespread in outback Australia but now largely unknown. One is "Barcoo rot", a skin disease, perhaps similar to "desert sore", characterised by crusted impetiginous skin sores and occurring in association with heat, dirt, minor traumas and a diet chronically deficient in fresh fruit and vegetables. A second is "Barcoo fever" in which the sufferer experiences fever, nausea and vomiting which was exacerbated by the sight or smell of food, and constipation. This disease, once common in the outback, has also vanished. It may have been due to drinking water contaminated by cyanobacterial (blue-green algal) toxins. Provision of more reliable food supplies and safer sources of water in the "far Barcoo" may explain why these diseases have now all but disappeared.

The name also appears in the phrase "the Barcoo salute" – brushing the ever-present bush flies from the face with either hand.

Literary references

The Barcoo is mentioned in some poems of Banjo Paterson. Examples are in the second stanza of Saltbush Bill [5] and the first stanza of A Bush Christening . [6]

The Barcoo is also referenced in Slim Dusty’s song, “Mad Jack’s Cockatoo”, in the second line of the first verse.

Now Saltbush Bill was a drover tough as ever the country knew,
He had fought his way on the Great Stock Routes from the sea to the big Barcoo;
He could tell when he came to a friendly run that gave him a chance to spread,
And he knew where the hungry owners were that hurried his sheep ahead;
He was drifting down in the Eighty drought with a mob that could scarcely creep
(When the kangaroos by the thousand starve, it is rough on the travelling sheep),
And he camped one night at the crossing-place on the edge of the Wilga run;
"We must manage a feed for them here," he said, "or half of the mob are done!"

– Saltbush Bill

On the outer Barcoo where the churches are few,
And men of religion are scanty,
On a road never cross'd 'cept by folk that are lost,
One Michael Magee had a shanty.

– A Bush Christening

There’s a man that went out in the flood time and drought,
By the banks of the outer Barcoo,
And they called him Mad Jack cause the swag on his back,
Was the perch for an old cockatoo.

— “Mad Jack’s Cockatoo”

See also

Related Research Articles

Lake Eyre Endorheic lake in South Australia

Lake Eyre, officially known as Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, is an endorheic lake in east-central Far North South Australia, some 700 km (435 mi) north of Adelaide. The shallow lake is the depocentre of the vast endorheic Lake Eyre basin, and contains the lowest natural point in Australia at approximately 15 m (49 ft) below sea level (AHD), and on the rare occasions that it fills completely, is the largest lake in Australia covering an area up to 9,500 km2 (3,668 sq mi). When the lake is full, it has the same salinity level as seawater, but becomes hypersaline as the lake dries up and the water evaporates.

Waltzing Matilda 1895 Australian bush ballad

"Waltzing Matilda" is a song developed in the Australian style of poetry and folk music called a bush ballad. It has been described as the country's "unofficial national anthem".

Banjo Paterson Australian journalist, author and poet

Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around Binalong, New South Wales, where he spent much of his childhood. Paterson's more notable poems include "Clancy of the Overflow" (1889), "The Man from Snowy River" (1890) and "Waltzing Matilda" (1895), regarded widely as Australia's unofficial national anthem.

Darling River Major river in Australia

The Darling River 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, New South Wales. Including its longest contiguous tributaries it is 2,844 km (1,767 mi) long, making it the longest river system in Australia. The Darling River is the outback's most famous waterway.

Lake Eyre basin Place in *Queensland *South Australia *Northern Territory *New South Wales, Australia

The Lake Eyre basin is a drainage basin that covers just under one-sixth of all Australia. It is the largest endorheic basin in Australia and amongst the largest in the world, covering about 1,200,000 square kilometres (463,323 sq mi), including much of inland Queensland, large portions of South Australia and the Northern Territory, and a part of western New South Wales. The basin is also one of the largest, least-developed arid zone basins with a high degree of variability anywhere. It supports only about 60,000 people and has no major irrigation, diversions or flood-plain developments. Low density grazing that sustains a large amount of wildlife is the major land use, occupying 82% of the total land within the basin. The Lake Eyre basin of precipitation to a great extent geographically overlaps the Great Artesian Basin underneath.

Yaraka Town in Queensland, Australia

Yaraka is a rural town and locality in the Longreach Region of Queensland, Australia. Until 2021, the town of Yaraka was part of the locality of Isisford.

Drover (Australian) A person who moves livestock over long distances

A drover in Australia is a person, typically an experienced stockman, who moves livestock, usually sheep, cattle, and horses "on the hoof" over long distances. Reasons for droving may include: delivering animals to a new owner's property, taking animals to market, or moving animals during a drought in search of better feed and/or water or in search of a yard to work on the livestock. The drovers who covered very long distances to open up new country were known as "overlanders".

"The Geebung Polo Club" is a poem by Banjo Paterson, first published in The Antipodean in 1893. It was also included in his first anthology of bush poetry The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses in 1895.

Tirari Desert Desert in South Australia

The Tirari Desert is a 15,250 square kilometres (5,888 sq mi) desert in the eastern part of the Far North region of South Australia. It stretches 212 km from north to south and 153 km from east to west.

Alice River (Barcoo River tributary) River in Queensland, Australia

The Alice River in central Queensland, Australia rises on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range. The river bisects the Shire of Barcaldine, flowing in a south-westerly direction towards Isisford and its confluence with the Barcoo River. The town of Barcaldine is located on the Alice River. The Alice River's tributaries include Jordan Creek and Lagoon Creek. The Alice River is often dry, except after the annual summer rains.

Macumba River

Macumba River, once known as Treuer River, is an ephemeral freshwater stream in the far north of South Australia, that is part of the Lake Eyre Basin.

Morney Plains Station, most commonly referred to as Morney Plains, is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in south west Queensland.

Mulka Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in the far north of South Australia. The land occupying the extent of the Mulka Station pastoral lease was gazetted as a locality by the Government of South Australia on 26 April 2013 under the name "Mulka".

Saltbush Bill is a humorous poem by Australian writer and poet Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson. It was first published in The Bulletin magazine on 15 December 1894, the Christmas issue of that publication.

Edward Sorenson Australian writer and poet

Edward Sylvester (Ed) Sorenson, was an Australian writer and poet.

<i>The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses</i> Collected poems by Banjo Paterson

The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses (1895) is the first collection of poems by Australian poet Banjo Paterson. It was released in hardback by Angus and Robertson in 1895, and features the poet's widely anthologised poems "The Man from Snowy River", "Clancy of the Overflow", "Saltbush Bill" and "The Man from Ironbark". It also contains the poet's first two poems that featured in The Bulletin Debate, a famous dispute in The Bulletin magazine from 1892-93 between Paterson and Henry Lawson.

A Bush Christening is a humorous poem by Australian writer and poet Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson. It was first published in The Bulletin magazine on 16 December 1893, the Christmas issue of that publication. It has been called "a rollicking account of how the traditional pre-occupations, whisky and religion, come together".

Bidyanus welchi, commonly known as Welch's grunter, black bream, or silver bream, is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish from the family Terapontidae native to Australia.

<i>Saltbush Bill, J.P., and Other Verses</i> Poetry collection by Banjo Paterson

Saltbush Bill, J.P., and Other Verses (1917) is the third collection of poems by Australian poet Banjo Paterson. It was released in hardback by Angus and Robertson in 1917, and features the poems "Waltzing Matilda", "Saltbush Bill, J.P.", "An Answer to Various Bards" and "T.Y.S.O.N.".

Old Isisford District Hospital

Old Isisford District Hospital is a heritage-listed former public hospital at 6 St Agnes Street, Isisford, Longreach Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Queensland Department of Public Works and built from 1914 to 1918. It is also known as Isisford District Hospital (former). It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 9 September 2014.

References

  1. ↑ Beale, Edgar (1983). Kennedy The Barcoo and Beyond 1847. Hobart: Blubber Head Press. ISBN   0-908528-11-6.
  2. ↑ Joy, William (1964). The Explorers. Adelaide: Rigby Ltd. p. 72. ISBN   0-85179-112-3.
  3. ↑ "Water resources - Overview - Queensland - Surface Water Management Area: Cooper Creek (Qld)". Australian Natural Resources Atlas. Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. Archived from the original on 4 October 2009. Retrieved 20 May 2009.
  4. ↑ "Barcoo Grunter" . Retrieved 23 March 2013.
  5. ↑ Paterson, A. B. (1980) [1921]. The Collected Verse of A. B. Paterson. Sydney: Angus & Robertson. pp.  26–27. ISBN   0-207-13786-2.
  6. ↑ Paterson, A. B. (1980) [1921]. The Collected Verse of A. B. Paterson. Sydney: Angus & Robertson. p.  83. ISBN   0-207-13786-2.

Coordinates: 28°29′S137°46′E / 28.483°S 137.767°E / -28.483; 137.767

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.