Darling
Darling is a mapped river in the YearMaps hydrographic index. River courses organise settlement, agriculture and frontier-making more durably than any political boundary, and this reach is indexed against the dams, lakes and cities within its catchment.
- Feature Class
- River
- Coordinates
- -31.37°, 144.01°
About Darling
The Darling River (or River Darling; 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 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.
As of the early 2020s, 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 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.
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Darling River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Darling in Depth
Course
The whole Murray–Darling river system, one of the largest in the world, drains all of New South Wales west of 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 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.
History
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 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 the Governor. In 1835, Major Thomas Mitchell travelled a 483-kilometre (300 mi) portion of the Darling River.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Darling River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Darling: Key Facts
| Length | 1,472 km |
|---|---|
| Average discharge | 100 m³/s |
| Drainage basin | 710,000 km² |
| Mouth | Murray River |
| Drainage system | Murray–Darling basin |
| Tributaries | Barwon River, Bogan River, Little Bogan River, Culgoa River, Warrego River, Paroo River, Frenchmans Creek |
Facts from Wikidata Q181482 (CC0).
Major River Dossiers
Hand-written studies of the great river systems of history.
Connected Reaches
Nearby watercourses in the same drainage network.
Water Bodies in the Catchment
Settlements Along the Reach
Hydraulic Infrastructure Nearby
Surrounding Terrain
Darling: Quick Answers
- Where is Darling?
- Darling is located in Australia, at 31.3749° S, 144.0143° E.
- Are there dams on the Darling?
- No dam on the Darling is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.