TheDarling River (orRiver Darling;[1]Paakantyi:Baaka orBarka), is the third-longest river inAustralia, measuring 1,472 kilometres (915 mi) from its source in northernNew South Wales to its confluence with theMurray River atWentworth. Including its longest contiguous tributaries, it is 2,844 km (1,767 mi) long, making it the longest river system in Australia.[2] The Darling River is theoutback's most famous waterway.[3]
As of the early 2020s, the Darling is in poorhealth,[4] suffering from over-allocation of its waters toirrigation,[5][6]pollution frompesticide runoff,[7][8] and prolongeddrought. During drought periods in 2019 it barely flowed at all. The river has a high salt content and decliningwater quality. Increased rainfall in its catchment in 2010 improved its flow, but the health of the river will depend on long-term management.[9]
Aboriginal peoples have lived along the Darling River for tens of thousands of years. TheBarkindji people called itBaaka orBarka, "Barkindji" meaning "people of the Barka".[10]
TheQueensland headwaters of the Darling (the area now known as theDarling Downs) were gradually colonized from 1815 onward. In 1828 the explorersCharles Sturt andHamilton Hume were sent by the Governor of New South Wales,Sir Ralph Darling, to investigate the course of theMacquarie River. He visited the Bogan River and then, early in 1829, the upper Darling, which he named after the Governor. In 1835, MajorThomas Mitchell travelled a 483-kilometre (300 mi) portion of the Darling River. Although he did not reach its confluence with the Murray River, he believed (correctly) that it did flow into the Murray River.[11][12]
In 1856, theBlandowski Expedition set off for the junction of the Darling and Murray Rivers to discover and collect fish species for the National Museum. The expedition was a success with 17,400 specimens arriving in Adelaide the next year.[13]
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, thepastoralists of western New South Wales using it to send their wool by shallow-draftpaddle steamer from busy river ports such asBourke andWilcannia to the South Australian railheads atMorgan andMurray Bridge. But over the past century the river's importance as a transportation route has declined.
In 1992, the Darling River suffered from a severecyanobacterial bloom that stretched the length of the river.[15] The presence of phosphorus was essential for the toxic algae to flourish. Flow rates, turbulence, turbidity and temperature were other contributing factors.
In 2008, the Federal government purchasedToorale Station in northern New South Wales for $23 million. The purchase allowed the government to return elevengigalitres (2.4×10^9imp gal; 2.9×10^9US gal) ofenvironmental flows back into the Darling.[16]
In 2019, a crisis on the Lower Darling saw up to 1 million fish die. A report by theAustralia Institute said this was largely due to the decisions by theMurray-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 newBroken Hill pipeline and theMenindee Lakes project. Maryanne Slattery, senior water researcher with the Australia Institute; "To blame the fish kill on the drought is a cop-out, it is because water releases were made from the lakes when this simply shouldn't have happened.[17]
A large flood occurred around Bourke in 2022.
A worse fish kill occurred in 2023. Millions of dead bony bream, golden perch and silver perch, and Murray cod flowed down the river atMenindee.[18] The cause was low oxygen levels and high temperatures.[18]
The wholeMurray–Darling river system, one of the largest in the world, drains all of New South Wales west of theGreat Dividing Range, much of northernVictoria and southern Queensland and parts ofSouth Australia. Its meandering course is three times longer than the direct distance it traverses.[19]
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.[20] Officially the Darling begins betweenBrewarrina andBourke at theconfluence of theCulgoa andBarwon rivers; streams whose tributaries rise in the ranges of southern Queensland and northernNew South Wales west of theGreat Dividing Range. These tributaries include theBalonne 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], theMacintyre River and its tributaries such as theDumaresq River and theSevern Rivers (there are two – one on either side of the state border); theGwydir River; theNamoi River; theCastlereagh River; and theMacquarie River. Other rivers join the Darling near Bourke or below – theBogan River, theWarrego River andParoo River.
South east ofBroken Hill, theMenindee Lakes are a series of lakes that were once connected to the Darling River by short creeks.[21] The Menindee Lake Scheme has reduced the frequency of flooding in the Menindee Lakes. As a result, about 13,800 hectares oflignum and 8,700 hectares ofBlack box have been destroyed.[21] Weirs and constant low flows have fragmented the river system and blocked fish passage.
Navigation bysteamboat to Brewarrina was first achieved in 1859.[20] Brewarrina was also the location of intertribal meetings forIndigenous Australians who speakDarling and live in the river basin. Ancientfish traps in the river provided food for feasts. Theseheritage listed rock formations have been estimated at more than 40,000 years old making them the oldest man-made structure on the planet.[3]
Australian poetHenry Lawson wrote a well-known ironic tribute to the Darling River.[22] 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 is the dirge of the Darling River.
The Australian bandMidnight Oil wrote a song called "The Barka-Darling River" for their albumResist, drawing attention to the negative effects of cotton farming on the environment and people connected to the river.
^McCORMICK, Bill."Murray-Darling Basin water issues".Parliamentary Library. Commonwealth of Australia.Archived from the original on 8 September 2021. Retrieved8 September 2021.
^ab"Menindee Lakes".Discovering the Darling. Murray Darling Environmental Foundation. Archived fromthe original on 3 April 2011. Retrieved16 January 2012.
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