Gwydir River
| Gwydir River | |
|---|---|
 Gwydir River at Bingara, NSW |
|
| Origin | Northern Tablelands |
| Mouth | confluence with the Barwon River |
| Basin countries | Australia |
| Basin area | 26,588 km²[1] |
The Gwydir River is a large inland river in the northern part of the Australian state of New South Wales which is part of the Murray-Darling Basin. The river has two main tributaries—the Horton River and the Rocky River. 'Gwydir' is pronounced to rhyme with 'wider', and not as the Welsh might pronounce it.
The Copeton Dam on the Gwydir River stores water for towns, stock, domestic use and irrigation. The Gwydir River below Copeton dam, provides some of the wildest whitewater rafting available in Australia. Before the construction of Copeton Dam and much diversionary work, the Gwydir River flowed into the Gingham and Lower Gwydir Wetlands. The Gwydir Highway was named after the river.
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[edit] Geography
The Gwydir river rises on the southern part of the Northern Tablelands near the town of Uralla, and flows about 668 km (415 mi) generally north west and then west onto the plains where it branches somewhat, eventually joining the Barwon River, mostly as its main branch the Mehi River which branches off to the east of Moree before passing though it. The upper Gwydir River also passes the towns of Bundarra, Bingara, Gravesend, and Pallamallawa. Further distributaries above Moree are the Carole/GilGil Creeks to the north and this may flow into the Barwon River if flow is high enough.
The Gwydir River further splits into two anabranches west of Moree - the Lower Gwydir or "Big Leather Watercourse" is the southern channel, and the "Gingham Channel" is the northern branch. The Gingham Channel flows west, joining the Ballone Creek before it flows into the Big Leather Watercourse. The Big Leather watercourse then joins the Mehi River to the south. The Mehi River joins the Barwon River near the township of Collarenebri.
[edit] History
Explorer Allan Cunningham crossed the river at Gravesend in 1827 and named it after his patron, Lord Gwydir, who took his title from Gwydir Castle in Wales. The Commonwealth Electoral Division of Gwydir, which was created in 1901 and ceased to exist at the 2007 federal election, was named for the Gwydir River. In Australia the name is pronounced to rhyme with "wider," whereas the Welsh name is pronounced roughly "Gwidd-eer."
The iron lattice bridges crossing the Gwydir River at Bundarra and Bingara are regarded as significant bridges of the colonial period.[2]
[edit] Agriculture
A lot of irrigated cotton is grown near Moree, as well as many other crops, livestock and agricultural enterprises. The cotton industry relies on irrigation and has been affected by recent drought with water allocations to farms severely reduced. In 2006 it was calculated that the cotton industry consumed 87% of the agricultural water taken from the Gwydir River.[3]
Irrigation in the upper Gwydir led to a severe reduction in environmental flows downstream.[4] The reduction in water flow has affected landholders who traditionally used waters from the river to supplement stock drinking water and for minor watering of pasture and small areas of crops. It also stopped periodical flushes of water into ephemeral creeks, watercourses and wetlands in the more remote off-river properties. These conflicts resulted in the establishment of the Gwydir Regulated River Management Committee in 1997 and a management plan which came into effect on 1 July 2004.[4]
[edit] Environment
[edit] Wetlands
Some 800 ha of the privately-owned Gwydir wetlands were designated on 14 June 1999 as a Ramsar site as a wetland of international importance.[5]
Some 1021 km2 of the Gwydir wetlands have been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because, when they receive adequate water inflows, they support more breeding waterbirds than any other site in the country. At times more than half a million nesting waterbirds have been present, including over 1% of the world populations of Nankeen Night Herons, Intermediate Egrets, and of White and Straw-necked Ibises. The endangered Australasian Bittern has been recorded.[6]
The Namoi River Snapping Turtle or Bell's turtle (Elseya belli) is found only in the upper reaches of the Namoi, Gwydir and Macdonald Rivers on the North West Slopes of New South Wales.[7]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Landscape - carbon, nutrients, water and productivity - Gwydir River". Australian Natural Resource Atlas. http://www.anra.gov.au/topics/land/carbon/nsw/basin-gwydir-river.html. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
- ^ Gwydir River Bridge at Bingara
- ^ Marian Wilkinson (2008-08-16). "Cotton sucking life out of Murray". Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Digital. http://www.smh.com.au/news/water-issues/cotton-sucking-life-out-of-murray/2008/08/15/1218307227802.html. Retrieved 2009-06-30.
- ^ a b Pigram, John J. (2007). Australia's Water Resources: From use to management. Collingwood, Victoria: CSIRO Pubishing. pp. 138—139. ISBN 9780643094420.
- ^ "The Annotated Ramsar List: Australia". The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. 4 January 2000. http://www.ramsar.org/cda/en/ramsar-pubs-annolist-annotated-ramsar-16713/main/ramsar/1-30-168%5E16713_4000_0__. Retrieved 29 March 2010.
- ^ "IBA: Gwydir Wetlands". Birdata. Birds Australia. http://www.birdata.com.au/iba.vm. Retrieved 2011-07-05.
- ^ Threatened Species of the New England Tablelands & NW Slopes of NSW, NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service, 2003, ISBN 0 7313 6673 5
[edit] External links
