28-873: 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 . The river rises from below Mount Ka Ka Mundi in the Carnarvon Range , near Tambo in Queensland, and flows generally south, reaching its confluence with
56-590: 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. The Division of Darling , Division of Riverina-Darling , Electoral district of Darling and Electoral district of Lachlan and Lower Darling were named after the river. Aboriginal peoples have lived along the Darling River for tens of thousands of years. The Barkindji people called it Baaka or Barka , "Barkindji" meaning "people of
84-473: A series of lakes that were once connected to the Darling River by short creeks. The Menindee Lake Scheme has reduced the frequency of flooding in the Menindee Lakes. As a result, about 13,800 hectares of lignum and 8,700 hectares of Black box have been destroyed. Weirs and constant low flows have fragmented the river system and blocked fish passage. The Darling River runs south-south-west, leaving
112-701: A tributary of the Culgoa River . Cuttaburra Creek connects the Warrego to the Paroo River via a distribution system that flows through channels, floodways and wetlands. The Irrara Creek anabranch flows into Kerribree Creek which continues into a number of wetlands before filling Utah Lake . When La Niña occurs, flooding is usual along the Warrego: major floods associated with La Niña events occurred in 1950, 1954 to 1956, 1971, 1973, 1998 and 2008. Oddly,
140-611: A weir was constructed at Menindee to mitigate flows from the Darling River. 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. Major settlements along the river include Brewarrina, Bourke , Louth , Tilpa , Wilcannia , Menindee , Pooncarie and Wentworth . Wentworth
168-773: Is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by the Gunya people. The Gunya language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of the Paroo Shire Council , taking in Cunnamulla and extending north towards Augathella , east towards Bollon and west towards Thargomindah . Darling 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
196-416: Is because water releases were made from the lakes when this simply shouldn't have happened. 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 . The cause was low oxygen levels and high temperatures. The whole Murray–Darling river system , one of the largest in the world, drains all of New South Wales west of
224-470: Is essentially an ephemeral stream: it is not unknown for years to pass without any flow in the basin and substantial amounts of water reach the Darling River only in wet years almost always associated with La Niña events. Below Wyandra the river forms a series of outflowing creeks and anabranches. During floods, the Widgeegoara, Kudnapper and Noorama Creeks allow water to channel into Nebine Creek,
252-480: Is the dirge of the Darling River. He also wrote about the river in The Union Buries Its Dead and "Andy's Gone With Cattle". Other bush poets who have written about the river include Scots-Australian Will H. Ogilvie (1869–1963) and Breaker Morant (1864–1902). The Australian band Midnight Oil wrote a song called "The Barka-Darling River" for their album Resist , drawing attention to
280-733: 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 Barrier Highway at Wilcannia, the Silver City Highway at Wentworth and the Broken Hill railway line at Menindee, all cross the Darling River. Part of the river north of Menindee marks the border of Kinchega National Park . In response to the 1956 Murray River flood ,
308-490: The Great Dividing Range , much of northern Victoria and southern Queensland and parts of South Australia . Its meandering course is three times longer than the direct distance it traverses. 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. Officially the Darling begins between Brewarrina and Bourke at
SECTION 10
#1732772044934336-1033: 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 Broken Hill , the Menindee Lakes are
364-522: 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. The Darling River is the outback 's most famous waterway. The Darling is in poor health , suffering from over-allocation of its waters to irrigation , pollution from pesticide runoff, and prolonged drought . During drought periods in 2019 it barely flowed at all. The river has
392-800: 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],
420-563: The 590 square kilometres (230 sq mi) property set aside for the protection of threatened species of birds and animals. The name Warrego is an Australian Aboriginal word from the Bidyara language , believed to mean "bad"; and is also an Aboriginal term meaning "river of sand". Two warships of the Royal Australian Navy have been named HMAS Warrego after the river. The Warrego Highway draws its name from
448-642: The Barka". 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
476-596: The Darling River, downstream from Bourke . The river is joined by thirty-seven tributaries , including the Nive and Langlo rivers; descending 528 metres (1,732 ft) over its 1,380-kilometre (860 mi) course . The river flows through a series of reservoirs , including the Dillalah Waterhole, Ten Mile Waterhole, Lower Lila Dam, Six Mile Dam, Turtle Waterhole, and Boera Dam. The towns of Augathella , Charleville , Wyandra and Cunnamulla are located on
504-599: The Federal government purchased Toorale Station in northern New South Wales for $ 23 million. The purchase allowed the government to return eleven gigalitres (2.4 × 10 ^ imp gal ; 2.9 × 10 ^ US gal ) of environmental flows back into the Darling. In 2019, a crisis on the Lower Darling saw up to 1 million fish die. A report by the Australia Institute said this
532-598: The Governor. In 1835, Major Thomas Mitchell travelled a 483-kilometre (300 mi) portion of the Darling River. Although his party never reached the junction with the Murray River he correctly assumed the rivers joined. In 1856, the Blandowski Expedition set off for the junction of the Darling and Murray Rivers to discover and collect fish species for the National Museum. The expedition
560-503: The South Australian railheads at Morgan and Murray Bridge . But over the past century the river's importance as a transportation route has declined. In 1992, the Darling River suffered from a severe cyanobacterial bloom that stretched the length of the river. The presence of phosphorus was essential for the toxic algae to flourish. Flow rates, turbulence, turbidity and temperature were other contributing factors. In 2008,
588-460: The banks of the river. Most of the basin of the Warrego is too dry for cropping and has a very erratic rainfall of between 350 and 500 millimetres (14 and 20 in). It is covered with a natural vegetation of grassland on more fertile clay soils , and saltbush shrubland on less fertile red earths. The predominant land use is low-intensity grazing of sheep and cattle: the river's flow is much too erratic to permit irrigated cropping. The Warrego
SECTION 20
#1732772044934616-458: The most destructive flood ever recorded on the river took place in the absence of La Niña . In April 1990, as a result of two extremely strong troughs in the easterlies, over 400 millimetres (16 in) of rain fell in Cunnamulla in two weeks, being more than the annual rainfall in over 60 percent of years. The river, along with most tributaries of the Darling, reached near-record levels and
644-407: The oldest man-made structure on the planet. Australian poet Henry Lawson wrote a well-known ironic tribute to the Darling River. 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
672-556: The river. Bidjara (also known as Bidyara, Pitjara, Peechara) is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by the Bidjara people. The Bidjara language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of the Murweh Shire Council , particularly the towns of Charleville , Augathella and Blackall as well as the properties of Nive Downs and Mount Tabor . Gunya (also known as Kunya, Kunja, Kurnja)
700-504: The towns of Augathella and Charleville were devastated. At Charleville a river height peak of 8.54 metres (28.0 ft) was recorded. The Warrego River is one of a few rivers where silver perch breed naturally. Golden perch and murray cod are also found in the river. Carnarvon Station , once a large cattle property at the rivers headwaters, was acquired by the Australian Bush Heritage Fund in 2001, with
728-424: Was Australia's busiest inland port in the late 1880s. Navigation by steamboat to Brewarrina was first achieved in 1859. Brewarrina was also the location of intertribal meetings for Indigenous Australians who speak Darling and live in the river basin. Ancient fish traps in the river provided food for feasts. These heritage listed rock formations have been estimated at more than 40,000 years old making them
756-478: Was a success with 17,400 specimens arriving in Adelaide the next year. 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 pastoralists of western New South Wales using it to send their wool by shallow-draft paddle steamer from busy river ports such as Bourke and Wilcannia to
784-557: Was largely due to the decisions by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority on instructions from the New South Wales government. It said the reasons for those decisions appeared to be about building the case for the new Broken Hill pipeline and the Menindee Lakes project. Maryanne Slattery, senior water researcher with the Australia Institute; "To blame the fish kill on the drought is a cop-out, it
#933066