Gilbert River (Queensland)

Last updated

Gilbert
Gilbert River dry sandy bed.jpg
The dry bed of the Gilbert River at the crossing on the Gulf Development Road between Croydon and Georgetown, Queensland.
Australia Queensland relief location map.jpg
Red pog.svg
Location of Gilbert River mouth in Queensland
EtymologyIn honour of John Gilbert [1]
Location
Country Australia
State Queensland
Region Far North Queensland
Physical characteristics
Source Gregory and Newcastle Ranges, Atherton Tableland
 • locationbelow Conical Hill
 • elevation634 m (2,080 ft)
Mouth Gulf of Carpentaria
 • location
north of Karumba
 • coordinates
 16°32′23″S141°16′22″E / 16.53972°S 141.27278°E / -16.53972; 141.27278 Coordinates: 16°32′23″S141°16′22″E / 16.53972°S 141.27278°E / -16.53972; 141.27278
 • elevation
0 m (0 ft)
Length887 km (551 mi)
Basin size46,810 km2 (18,070 sq mi)
Discharge 
 • average280 m3/s (9,900 cu ft/s)(extremely seasonal)
Basin features
Tributaries 
 • leftLangdon River, Little River (Queensland), Einasleigh River
 • right Styx River, Percy River, Robertson River
National park Blackbraes National Park
[2]

The Gilbert River is located in Far North Queensland, Australia. When combined with the Einasleigh River, the river system is the largest river system in northern Australia.[ citation needed ]

Contents

Features and location

The Gilbert River rises below Conical Hill in the Einasleigh Uplands, draining the eastern slopes of the Gregory Range and the western slopes of the Newcastle Range, north of Hughenden. The river flows generally northwest, joined by forty tributaries that drain the Blackbraes National Park including, from source to mouth, the Styx, Percy, Robertson, Langdon, Little, and Einasleigh rivers and numerous creeks. North of Karumba the Gilbert discharges into the Gulf of Carpentaria. However, northwest of Normanton an anabranch of the river forms confluence with the Smithburne River, also emptying into the Gulf. [2] The Gilbert River has a catchment area of 22,041 square kilometres (8,510 sq mi) of which 455 square kilometres (176 sq mi), or a third of the total catchment, [3] is a vast estuarine delta approximately 100 kilometres (62 mi) wide [4] that largely consists of tidal flats and mangrove swamps across the Gulf Country. The river descends 635 metres (2,083 ft) over its 887-kilometre (551 mi) course. [2]

The Gilbert River is a seasonal stream and discharge can vary greatly depending on the intensity of the monsoon. When combined with the Einasleigh River, the Gilbert River has the sixth-highest discharge of any river in Australia,[ citation needed ] slightly less than that of the Potomac in North America. In an intense wet season, however, the discharge can be as large as that of the Fraser River in Canada, and in a mild wet season like that of 1951-52, the discharge can be as little as one tenth of the long term mean.[ citation needed ] It is estimated that runoff from the combined Gilbert-Einasleigh River system totals about 2.2 percent of the total runoff from Australia. [5] The record major flood of the Gilbert River was in January 1974 and the floods of February 1991 and in January and February 2009, caused widespread road closures and inundation of properties throughout the catchment. [4]

Environment

The climate of the basin is tropical, with annual rainfall generally around 800 millimetres (31 in). Almost all the annual rainfall occurs between December and March: the months from May to September are rainless in over 60 percent of years (over 80 percent for August). Rainfall is highly variable due to monsoon variability and occasional severe cyclones: in a wet season like 1973–74 or 1999–2000 it can exceed 1,800 millimetres (71 in), but in the almost nonexistent wet season of 1951-952 it was as low as 300 millimetres (12 in) over much of the basin.[ citation needed ]

The river is too erratic for hydroelectricity to be viable and the soils are exceedingly infertile – generally ironstone gravels or kaolinitic clays – the combined Gilbert-Einasleigh River system is one of the relatively few completely free-flowing river systems of its size or greater in the world.[ citation needed ] Most of the basin is natural grassland used for grazing cattle at the extremely low densities permissible with the very low nutritive qualities of the feed available: the population is no more than one thousand or one person for over 40 square kilometres (15 sq mi). In the upper reaches soils are more fertile red cracking clays but erode too easily under the erratic rainfall for cropping to be a likely prospect even with groundwater available. The mouth of the river lies in the Gulf Plains Important Bird Area. [6]

The traditional owners of the upper catchment area are the Kunjen people. [7]

Etymology

The river was named in July 1845 by Ludwig Leichhardt in honour of the naturalist John Gilbert who was killed two weeks earlier in an engagement with an Aboriginal group near the Gulf of Carpentaria coast. [1]

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.

Burdekin River River in Queensland, Australia

The Burdekin River is a river located in North and Far North Queensland, Australia. The river rises on the northern slopes of Boulder Mountain at Valley of Lagoons, part of the western slope of the Seaview Range, and flows into the Coral Sea at Upstart Bay over 200 kilometres (124 mi) to the southeast of the source, with a catchment area of approximately 130,000 square kilometres (50,000 sq mi). The Burdekin River is Australia's largest river by (peak) discharge volume.

Diamantina River River in South Australia, Australia

The Diamantina River is a major river located in Central West Queensland and the far north of South Australia.

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.

Gulf of Carpentaria Gulf of Australia

The Gulf of Carpentaria is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea. The northern boundary is generally defined as a line from Slade Point, Queensland in the northeast, to Cape Arnhem on the Gove Peninsula, Northern Territory in the west.

Cooper Creek River in Queensland, South Australia

The Cooper Creek is one of the most famous rivers in Australia because it was the site of the death of the explorers Burke and Wills in 1861. It is sometimes known as the Barcoo River from one of its tributaries and is one of three major Queensland river systems that flow into the Lake Eyre basin. The flow of the creek depends on monsoonal rains falling months earlier and many hundreds of kilometres away in eastern Queensland. It is 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) in length.

Mitchell River (Queensland) River in Queensland, Australia

The Mitchell River is a river located in Far North Queensland, Australia. The river rises on the Atherton Tableland about 50 kilometres (31 mi) northwest of Cairns and flows about 750 kilometres (470 mi) northwest across Cape York Peninsula from Mareeba to the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Warrego River River in Australia

The Warrego River is an intermittent river that is part of the Darling catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, which is located in South West Queensland and in the Orana region of New South Wales, Australia. The Warrego River is the northernmost tributary of the Darling River.

Northern Australia Northern regions of Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland in Australia

The unofficial geographic term Northern Australia includes those parts of Queensland and Western Australia north of latitude 26° and all of the Northern Territory. Those local government areas of Western Australia and Queensland that lie partially in the north are included.

Georgina River River in Australia

The Georgina River is the north-westernmost of the three major rivers of the Channel Country in Central West Queensland, that also flows through a portion of the Northern Territory, in central Australia. Part of the Lake Eyre basin, the Georgina flows in extremely wet years into Lake Eyre.

The Staaten River is a river in northern Queensland, Australia, rising in the Great Dividing Range and flowing northwest into the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Georgetown, Queensland Town in Queensland, Australia

Georgetown is a town and locality in the Shire of Etheridge, Queensland, Australia. In the 2016 census, Georgetown had a population of 348 people.

Einasleigh River River in Queensland, Australia

The Einasleigh River is a river located in Far North Queensland, Australia. When combined with the Gilbert River, the river system is the largest river system in northern Australia.

The 1950 rainfall records for the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland reported probably the most remarkable record high rainfall totals ever recorded anywhere in the continent. Averaged over both of these states, 1950 is clearly the wettest year since adequate records became available circa 1885. Queensland recorded a statewide average rainfall of around 1,125 millimetres (44.3 in) as against a mean since 1885 of around 640 millimetres (25.2 in), whilst New South Wales recorded around 930 millimetres (36.6 in) as against an instrumental mean around 520 millimetres (20.5 in). Australia's wettest town, Tully also recorded its highest annual rainfall total in 1950 with 7,925 millimetres (312.0 in).

Gulf Country Region in Queensland, Australia

The Gulf Country is the region of woodland and savanna grassland surrounding the Gulf of Carpentaria in north western Queensland and eastern Northern Territory on the north coast of Australia. The region is also called the Gulf Savannah. It contains large reserves of zinc, lead and silver. The Gulf Country is crossed by the Savannah Way highway.

Jardine River

The Jardine River is the largest river of the Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland, Australia.

Einasleigh, Queensland Town in Queensland, Australia

Einasleigh is a town and a locality in the Shire of Etheridge, Queensland, Australia. In the 2016 census, the locality of Einasleigh had a population of 92 people.

The Nicholson River is a river located in the Northern Territory and the state of Queensland, Australia.

The Mission River is a river located in Far North Queensland, Australia.

Lyndhurst is a locality in the Shire of Etheridge, Queensland, Australia. In the 2016 census, Lyndhurst had a population of 8 people.

References

  1. 1 2 "Gilbert River (entry 13736)". Queensland Place Names. Queensland Government . Retrieved 26 November 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 "Map of Gilbert River, QLD". Bonzle Digital Atlas of Australia. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
  3. ↑ "Gilbert River drainage sub-basin — facts and maps". WetlandInfo. Department of Environment and Heritage Protection, Queensland Government . Retrieved 27 November 2015.
  4. 1 2 "Flood warning system for the Gilbert River". Bureau of Meteorology . Australian Government. Retrieved 27 November 2015.
  5. ↑ Brown, John Alexander Henstridge (1983). Australia's Surface Water Resources. Canberra: Australian Government Publication Service.
  6. ↑ "Important Bird Areas factsheet: Gulf Plains". BirdLife International. 2011. Archived from the original on 10 July 2007. Retrieved 1 July 2011.
  7. ↑ "Kutjal". AusAnthrop Australian Aboriginal tribal database. Ausanthrop. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
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.