List of drainage basins of Australia

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A drainage basin is an extent of land where water from rain and melting snow or ice drains downhill into a body of water, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea or ocean. The drainage basin includes both the streams and rivers that convey the water as well as the land surfaces from which water drains into those channels, and is separated from adjacent basins by a drainage divide.

Contents

Major drainage basins are coded by hierarchy within the National Catchment Boundaries (NCB) dataset, with primary drainage basins attributed Level 1 and smaller river catchment subdivisions attributed Level 2. Beyond that, minor river and creek watersheds are ranked by the Pfafstetter Coding System. This article deals with surface water rather than groundwater basins, such as the Great Artesian Basin.

Australia has twelve distinguished NCB Level 1 drainage divisions [1] or thirteen [2] after splitting the South East Coast division at the New South WalesVictoria border as defined by the Australian Water Resources Assessment 2012, a hydrological survey conducted by the Bureau of Meteorology. [3] Runoff from these divisions generally flows into the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean and Lake Eyre.

Australia's 13 drainage divisions Drainage Divisions of Australia.svg
Australia's 13 drainage divisions

List of NCB Level 1 drainage basins

Code [A] NameArea (km2)Average rainfall (mm) [B] Accessible surface storage capacity (GL) [4] Major riversDrains toNotes
NEC North East Coast (Queensland)451,0008279,771 Suttor River, Belyando River, Nogoa River Coral Sea (Pacific Ocean)
SEN South East Coast (NSW) 129,5009954,056 Manning River, Karuah River, Hunter River, Hawkesbury River Tasman Sea (Pacific Ocean)
SEV South East Coast (Victoria) 134,6007347,570 Thomson River (VIC), Macalister River, Snowy River, Yarra River, Glenelg River Southern Ocean, Bass Strait
TAS Tasmania 68,0001,39822,041 River Derwent, Gordon River, Huon River, South Esk River Southern Ocean, Bass Strait, Tasman Sea (Pacific Ocean)Much of the storage capacity is used for hydroelectricity
MDB Murray-Darling Basin 1,061,00045825,320 Murray River, Darling River, Murrumbidgee River, Lachlan River Southern Ocean
SAG South Australian Gulf 117,700306197 River Torrens, Onkaparinga River, Gawler River, Broughton River Great Australian Bight (Southern Ocean)
SWP South Western Plateau 1,093,000232No data Great Australian Bight (Southern Ocean)Driest region in Australia with no major storage
SWC South West Coast 326,000439959 Avon River, Blackwood River Indian Ocean, Great Australian Bight (Southern Ocean)
PG Pilbara-Gascoyne 478,00025963 Greenough River, Murchison River Indian Ocean
NWP North Western Plateau 716,000316No data De Grey River Indian Ocean No major storage
TTS Tanami-Timor Sea Coast1,162,00065610,747 Ord River, Alligator Rivers, Daly River, Katherine River, Fitzroy River Timor Sea (Indian Ocean)
LEB Lake Eyre Basin 1,281,000242No data Georgina River, Diamantina River, Thomson River (QLD), Barcoo River, Cooper Creek Lake Eyre Only major surface Endorheic basin [C]
CC Carpentaria Coast [D] 647,00074499 Mitchell River, Flinders River, Gilbert River, Leichhardt River Gulf of Carpentaria, Arafura Sea

List of NCB Level 2 drainage basins

The following is a list of river or island catchments that are subdivisions of the basin containing them. [1]

North East Coast

See also

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Fitzroy River (Queensland)

The Fitzroy River is a river located in Central Queensland, Australia. Its catchment covers an area of 142,665 square kilometres (55,083 sq mi), making it the largest river catchment flowing to the eastern coast of Australia. It is also the largest river basin that discharges onto the Great Barrier Reef.

Burdekin River River in Queensland, Australia

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Condamine River River in Queensland, Australia

The Condamine River, part of the Balonne catchment that is part of the Murray-Darling Basin, drains the northern portion of the Darling Downs, an area of sub-coastal southern Queensland, Australia. The river is approximately 500 kilometers (310 mi) long and rises on Mount Superbus, South East Queensland's highest peak, on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range, approximately 100 kilometres (62 mi) from the east coast of Queensland, and then flows north west across the Darling Downs, then west. The Condamine River is a tributary of the Darling River.

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 about 60,000 people and a large amount of wildlife, and has no major irrigation, diversions or flood-plain developments. Low density grazing is the major land use, occupying 82% of the total land within the basin.

The South Australian gulf drainage division is the area surrounding the Gulf St Vincent and Spencer Gulf and a sliver of country to the immediate north. It includes 75,000 square kilometres of mostly moderately flat territory, broken only by the Mount Lofty Ranges which reach 932 metres at their highest point. It is bounded by the Murray-Darling Basin to the east, the Lake Eyre Basin to the north, and the Western Plateau to 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.

Nerang River

The Nerang River is a perennial river located in South East Queensland, Australia. Its catchment lies within the Gold Coast local government area and covers an area of 490 square kilometres (190 sq mi). The river is approximately 62 kilometres (39 mi) in length.

Burnett River

The Burnett River is a river located in the Wide Bay–Burnett and Central Queensland regions of Queensland, Australia.

Thomson River (Queensland)

The Thomson River is a perennial river that forms part of the Lake Eyre Basin, situated in the central west and western regions of Queensland, Australia. Much of the course of the river comprises a series of narrow channels synonymous with the Channel Country and the Galilee subregion.

Stanley River (Queensland)

The Stanley River is a perennial river located in the South East region of Queensland, Australia. A major tributary of the Brisbane River, the Stanley River valley extends roughly 35 kilometres (22 mi) westwards from the area south of Maleny, through Woodford to Kilcoy before veering southwards.

Georgina River

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 north-east coast drainage division or north-east coast basin is the area of Queensland between the Great Dividing Range and the Pacific Ocean. It lies between Torres Strait and an arbitrary line drawn along the Queensland - New South Wales border. In the north it meets the Gulf of Carpentaria basin to its west while further south lies the Lake Eyre Basin and the Murray-Darling Basin. In the south the Australian south-east coast drainage division continues to the east of the Great Divide.

A hydrological code or hydrologic unit code is a sequence of numbers or letters that identify a hydrological feature like a river, river reach, lake, or area like a drainage basin or catchment.

Johnstone River River in Queensland, Australia

The Johnstone River, comprising the North Johnstone River and the South Johnstone River, is a river system located in Far North and North Queensland, Australia.

The Bulloo-Bancannia drainage basin or Cooper Creek–Bulloo River Basin is a Level 2 drainage basin that covers part of western Queensland and New South Wales. It was recognised by the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO as a subdivision of the Lake Eyre basin in the 2012 Australian Water Resources Assessment.

Galilee Basin

The Galilee Basin is a large inland geological basin in the western Queensland region of Australia. The Galilee Basin is part of a larger Carboniferous to Mid-Triassic basin system that contains the Cooper Basin, situated towards the south-west of the Galilee Basin, and the Bowen Basin to the east. The Galilee Basin covers a total area of approximately 247,000 square kilometres (95,000 sq mi). The basin is underlain by the Carboniferous Drummond Basin and overlain by the Cretaceous – Jurassic Eromanga Basin. The Triassic and younger sediments of the Galilee Basin form the basal sequence of the Great Artesian Basin drainage basin.

Russell River

The Russell River is a river in Far North Queensland, Australia. The 59-kilometre (37 mi)-long river flows towards the Coral Sea and is located approximately 60 kilometres (37 mi) south of Cairns.

The Jackey Jackey Creek, also often called Jacky Jacky Creek, is a creek located in the Cape York Peninsula region of Far North Queensland, Australia.

References

  1. 1 2 "Geofabric Hydrology Reporting Regions - V2.1". data.gov.au. Bureau of Meteorology. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  2. "Australia's water resources". State of the Environment 2016. Australian Government, Department of the Environment and Energy. Retrieved 19 June 2019.
  3. "Australian Water Resources Assessment 2012" (PDF). Bureau of Meteorology. Retrieved 19 June 2019.
  4. "Water Storage". Bureau of Meteorology. Retrieved 19 June 2019.
  5. "Queensland Globe". State of Queensland . Retrieved 23 July 2019.