Strzelecki Creek

Last updated

Strzelecki
Creek
Lake eyre basin map.png
A map of the Lake Eyre Basin showing the location of Strzelecki Creek
Name origin: Paul Edmund de Strzelecki
Country Australia
State South Australia
Region Far North
Municipality unincorporated area
Part of Lake Eyre Basin
Source Cooper Creek
 - location south of Innamincka
 - elevation 52 m (171 ft)
Mouth Lake Blanche
 - location west of Montecollina
 - elevation 1 m (3 ft)
 - coordinates 29°21′51″S139°49′49″E / 29.364260°S 139.830150°E / -29.364260; 139.830150 Coordinates: 29°21′51″S139°49′49″E / 29.364260°S 139.830150°E / -29.364260; 139.830150
Length 200 km (124 mi)
protected areas Strzelecki Regional Reserve
Australia South Australia relief location map.png
Red pog.svg
Location of the river mouth in South Australia
[1]

The Strzelecki Creek, part of the Lake Eyre basin, is an ephemeral watercourse located in the Australian state of South Australia.

Lake Eyre basin Place in Queensland, Australia

The Lake Eyre basin is a drainage basin that covers just under one-sixth of all Australia. The Lake Eyre Basin 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.

South Australia State of Australia

South Australia is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of 983,482 square kilometres (379,725 sq mi), it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, and fifth largest by population. It has a total of 1.7 million people, and its population is the second most highly centralised in Australia, after Western Australia, with more than 77 percent of South Australians living in the capital, Adelaide, or its environs. Other population centres in the state are relatively small; Mount Gambier, the second largest centre, has a population of less than 30,000.

Contents

Course and features

The Strzelecki is a distributary of Cooper Creek and branches off near the town of Innamincka and flows in a southerly direction thought the Strzelecki Desert for about 200 kilometres (120 mi) towards Lake Blanche. While being feed by the Cooper Creek, it does have its own catchment and can flow independently after ‘heavy localised storms.’ Flows on ‘exceptional’ occasions can reach Lakes Blanche, Callabonna, Frome and Gregory. Its watercourse is lined by trees, bordered by “large parallel sand ridges” and includes “a series of waterholes.” [2] [3] [4]

Distributary stream that branches off and flows away from a main stream channel

A distributary, or a distributary channel, is a stream that branches off and flows away from a main stream channel. They are a common feature of river deltas. The phenomenon is known as river bifurcation. The opposite of a distributary is a tributary. Distributaries usually occur as a stream nears a lake or an ocean, but they can occur inland as well, such as on alluvial fans or when a tributary stream bifurcates as it nears its confluence with a larger stream. In some cases, a minor distributary can divert so much water from the main channel that it can become the main route.

Cooper Creek river

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. At 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) in length it is the second longest inland river system in Australia after the Murray-Darling system.

Innamincka, South Australia Town in South Australia

Innamincka is a small settlement in north-east South Australia, with a population of only 12. It is 821 kilometres north-east of Adelaide and 365 kilometres north-east from the closest town, Lyndhurst. It is also 66 kilometres north-east of the Moomba Gas Refinery. The town lies within the Innamincka Regional Reserve and is surrounded by the Strzlecki Desert to the south and the Sturt Stony Desert to the north. The township is situated along the Cooper Creek, a part of the Lake Eyre Basin.

Parts of the creek system are within the protected area known as the Strzelecki Regional Reserve.[ citation needed ] The creek system is also within the boundaries of the non-statutory Strzelecki Desert Lakes Important Bird Area . [5] The former pastoral lease property Tinga Tingana straddled the creek which also passes through Blanchewater Station.[ citation needed ]

Strzelecki Regional Reserve Protected area in South Australia

Strzelecki Regional Reserve is a protected area located in the Australian state of South Australia in the gazetted localities of Lindon and Strzelecki Desert about 493 kilometres north-east of Port Augusta. It includes the Strzelecki Desert and the dry Strzelecki Creek bed. The regional reserve can only accessed via the historic Strzelecki Track. It is partly located on land that was included on the List of Wetlands of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention under the name Coongie Lakes in 1987. The regional reserve is classified as an IUCN Category VI protected area.

Strzelecki Desert Lakes Important Bird Area South Australia

The Strzelecki Desert Lakes Important Bird Area is an Important Bird Area (IBA) in the Australian state of South Australia which consists of a series of ephemeral waterbodies in the arid Strzelecki Desert in the state's Far North region. It is considered to be important for waterbirds when its constituent lakes hold water in the aftermath of floods.

Etymology

It was named by the British explorer, Charles Sturt in 18 August 1845 after Paul Edmund de Strzelecki, the Polish scientist and explorer. [2] [4] Explorer Augustus Charles Gregory and his party found that following Strzelecki Creek proved to be the best way to travel through the interior from the Pacific to the Southern Ocean. [6]

Charles Sturt Australian explorer

Captain Charles Napier Sturt was a British explorer of Australia, and part of the European exploration of Australia. He led several expeditions into the interior of the continent, starting from both Sydney and later from Adelaide. His expeditions traced several of the westward-flowing rivers, establishing that they all merged into the Murray River. He was searching to prove his own passionately held belief that there was an "inland sea" at the centre of the continent.

Paweł Strzelecki 1797-1873, Polish explorer, and geologist

Sir Paweł Edmund Strzelecki, also known as Paul Edmund de Strzelecki, was a Polish explorer and geologist who in 1845 also became a British subject. He is noted for his contributions to the exploration of Australia, particularly the Snowy Mountains and Tasmania as well as climbing and naming the highest mountain on the continent – Mount Kosciuszko.

Augustus Charles Gregory Australian explorer

Sir Augustus Charles Gregory, KCMG was an English-born Australian explorer. Between 1846 and 1858 he undertook four major expeditions. He was appointed a Member of the Queensland Legislative Council.

See also

Related Research Articles

Simpson Desert desert in Central Australia

The Simpson Desert is a large area of dry, red sandy plain and dunes in Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland in central Australia. It is the fourth largest Australian desert, with an area of 176,500 km2 and is the world's largest sand dune desert.

Lake Gregory (South Australia)

Lake Gregory is a salt lake located in the Mid North region of South Australia. The lake lies to the west of Lake Blanche; to the east the Birdsville Track runs in between it and Lake Eyre.

Lake Frome lake in South Australia

Lake Frome is a large endorheic lake in the Australian state of South Australia located to the east of the Northern Flinders Ranges. It is a large, shallow, unvegetated salt pan, 100 kilometres (62 mi) long and 40 kilometres (25 mi) wide, lying mostly below sea level and having a total surface area of 259,615 hectares. It only rarely fills with brackish water flowing down usually dry creeks in the Northern Flinders Ranges from the west, or exceptional flows down the Strzelecki Creek from the north.

Lake Callabonna lake in South Australia

Lake Callabonna is a dry salt lake with little to no vegetation located in the Far North region of South Australia. The 160-square-kilometre (62 sq mi) lake is situated approximately 120 kilometres (75 mi) southwest of Cameron Corner, the junction of South Australia, Queensland and New South Wales. It is also known as Lake Mulligan.

Strzelecki Track track in South Australia

The Strzelecki Track is an outback track in South Australia, mostly unsealed but with a few short sealed sections to facilitate overtaking, linking Innamincka to Lyndhurst. It passes through the Strzelecki Desert. The 475-kilometre (295-mile) track was pioneered by bushman Harry Redford in 1871 and is passable to conventional vehicles during the dry season, although caution is required. A shorter route is available via a public access road between Moomba and Innamincka, making the distance 458 kilometres.

Tirari Desert desert in central 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.

Innamincka Regional Reserve Protected area in South Australia

Innamincka Regional Reserve is a protected area located in the north-east of South Australia which includes the town of Innamincka. The regional reserve was proclaimed on 22 December 1988 under National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 over a parcel of land previously part of the Innamincka Pastoral Lease to recognise it as "a place of major conservation importance" whilst permitting ongoing mining and agricultural activity. It was the first "multiple use reserve to be administered by a nature conservation agency" to be declared in South Australia under the category of regional reserve provided for in the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972. It is partly located on land that was included on the List of Wetlands of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention under the name Coongie Lakes in 1987. In 2005, a parcel of land was excised from the regional reserve to create the national park now known as Malkumba-Coongie Lakes National Park. It also includes the Innamincka/Cooper Creek state heritage area. The regional reserve is classified as an IUCN Category VI protected area.

Coongie Lakes lake

The Coongie Lakes is a freshwater wetland system located in the Far North region of South Australia. The 21,790-square-kilometre (8,410 sq mi) lakes system is located approximately 1,046 kilometres north of the Adelaide city centre. The wetlands includes lakes, channels, billabongs, shallow floodplains, deltas, and interdune swamps. It lies on the floodplain of Cooper Creek, an ephemeral river flowing through a desert landscape in the Lake Eyre Basin which rarely, after occasional large floods, empties into Lake Eyre. The wetland system has been recognised both as being of international importance by designation under the Ramsar Convention with a listing on 15 June 1987 and being nationally important within Australia with a listing in A Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia (DIWA). Its extent includes the regional town of Innamincka, the Malkumba-Coongie Lakes National Park, the Innamincka Regional Reserve, the Strzelecki Regional Reserve and the Coongie Lakes Important Bird Area.

Macumba River river in South Australia, Australia

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.

Lake Hope (South Australia) lake in South Australia

Lake Hope is an ephemeral salt lake in the far north of South Australia.

Blanchewater Station

Blanchewater Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in the far north of South Australia.

Frome River river in Australia

The Frome River is an ephemeral river in the Australian state of South Australia located within the Lake Eyre basin. Its source is near Mount Rose in the northern Flinders Ranges and it discharges into the south-eastern side of the northern part of Lake Eyre.

Etadunna, South Australia Suburb of Pastoral Unincorporated Area, South Australia

Etadunna is a locality in the Australian state of South Australia located about 684 kilometres north of the capital city of Adelaide and about 108 kilometres north-east of the town of Marree.

The Yandruwandha, alternatively known as Jandruwanta, are an Indigenous Australian tribe living in the Lakes area of South Australia south of Cooper Creek and west of the Wangkumara people.

References

  1. ↑ "Map of Strzelecki Creek, SA". Bonzle Digital Atlas of Australia. Retrieved 23 March 2017.
  2. 1 2 "Search result for " Strzelecki Creek (Stream) (Record no. SA0049990) with the following layers selected - "Suburbs and Localities" and "Place names (gazetteer)"". Property Location Browser. Government of South Australia. Retrieved 26 September 2016.
  3. ↑ Morton, S. R; Barker, R. D. (Robin Dale), 1940-; Doherty, M. D; CSIRO. Division of Wildlife and Ecology; Australia. World Heritage Unit (1995), Natural heritage values of the Lake Eyre Basin in South Australia : world heritage assessment (PDF), CSIRO Division of Wildlife and Ecology, p. 42, retrieved 26 September 2016
  4. 1 2 South Australia. Department for Environment and Heritage (2002), A review of Lake Frome and Strzelecki Regional Reserves, 1991-2001 (PDF), Dept. for Environment and Heritage, pp. 11 and 15, ISBN   978-0-7590-1038-3
  5. ↑ "Important Bird Areas factsheet: Strzelecki Desert Lakes". BirdLife International. 2017. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  6. ↑ "Strzelecki Creek National Heritage Place, Strzelecki Tk, Innamincka, SA, Australia". Australian Heritage Database. 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
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