Victoria River (Northern Territory)

For other places with the same name, see Victoria River.

The Victoria River is a river in the bioregion of Victoria Bonaparte in the Northern Territory of Australia. It flows for 560 kilometres (350 mi) from its source south of the Judbarra / Gregory National Park to the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf in the Timor Sea.

Victoria River
Victoria River access, near the roadhouse Victoria River crossing
Location of the Victoria River mouth in the Northern Territory
Etymology	Queen Victoria[1]
Location
Country	Australia
Territory	Northern Territory
Region	Victoria Bonaparte (IBRA)
Physical characteristics
Source	Mount Farquharson
• coordinates	17°28′16.1436″S 130°49′39.6048″E
• elevation	364 m (1,194 ft)
Mouth	Joseph Bonaparte Gulf
• coordinates	14°56′50″S 129°33′15″E
• elevation	0 m (0 ft)
Length	560 km (350 mi)
Basin size	87,900 km2 (33,900 sq mi) to 99,412.5 km2 (38,383.4 sq mi)[2]
Discharge
• location	Near mouth
• average	(Period: 1971–2000)345.7 m3/s (10,910 GL/a)[2] 158.4 m3/s (5,590 cu ft/s)
Basin features
River system	Victoria River
Tributaries
• left	Wickham, Baines, Bullo
• right	Camfield, Angalarri
National park	Judbarra / Gregory NP
[3][4]

History

On 12 September 1819, Philip Parker King came to the mouth of the Victoria and, twenty years later, in 1839, Captain J. C. Wickham arrived at the same spot in HMS Beagle and named the river after Queen Victoria. Crew members of the Beagle followed the river upstream into the interior for more than 200 kilometres (120 mi).^[1]

In August 1855 Augustus Gregory sailed from Moreton Bay and at the end of September reached the estuary of the Victoria River. He sailed up the river and carried out extensive exploration.^[5]

In 1847 Edmund Kennedy went on an expedition to trace the route of the "River Victoria" of Thomas Mitchell with a view to finding whether there was a practical route to the Gulf of Carpentaria. This "River Victoria" was later renamed the Barcoo River.^[6]

Location and features

Killing an Alligator, Victoria River, from John Lort Stokes' Discoveries in Australia (1846, vol. 2)

Flowing for 560 kilometres (350 mi) from its source, south of the Judbarra / Gregory National Park, until it enters Joseph Bonaparte Gulf in the Timor Sea, the Victoria River is the longest singularly named permanent river in the Northern Territory.^[7] It is the second longest permanent river in the Northern Territory, as defined by international standards, the longest being the Katherine/Daly River.^{[citation needed][a]}

Important wetlands are found in the lower reaches of the river with forming suitable habitat for waterfowl breeding colonies and roosting sites for migratory shorebirds. Large areas of rice-grass floodplain grasslands are also found along the river.^[8]

Part of the area adjoining the river mouth has been identified as the Legune (Joseph Bonaparte Bay) Important Bird Area because of its importance for waterbirds.^[9]

Tributaries

The river has 56 tributaries including the Camfield River, Wickham River, Battle Creek, Angalarri River, Gidyea Creek, and Armstrong River. The river also flows through several waterholes, such as Catfish waterhole and Four Mile Waterhole.^[3] It has a mean annual outflow of 5,000 gigalitres (1.321×10¹² US gal),^[10]

Cattle stations

Several large cattle stations are found along the length of the river, including Riveren where the river originates,^[4] Victoria River Downs, Coolibah Station,^[11] and Wave Hill Station, which is known for the historic strike known as the "Wave Hill walk-off" in the 1960s to the 1970s.^[12]

Eponyms

A species of turtle, Emydura victoriae, is named after the Victoria River.^[13]

See also

• Water portal
• Environment portal

• List of rivers of the Northern Territory

Footnotes

1. This is a single river with two separating European names, which was until recently deemed as two separate rivers due to the European naming conventions of earlier times. It begins just south of Jabiru, high in the Arnhem Land escarpment and flows into the Timor Sea some 690 kilometres (430 mi) later, thus making it 130 kilometres (81 mi) longer than the Victoria River.^{[citation needed]}