Culgoa ‐ Balonne Rivers

Title

Culgoa ‐ Balonne Rivers

Description

The data from this study region includes 11 oral histories (audio as mp3s, and transcripts) and 4 image galleries, as well as a georeferenced hand-drawn map of the area.

Geographically the Balonne is an extension of the Condamine River and starts near Glenmorgan. It flows through gently undulating country before reaching an expansive flat plain where it splits and forms several smaller rivers including the Culgoa. The Culgoa River twists and turns across the floodplain and through coolabah woodlands before flowing into the Darling River between the towns of Brewarrina and Bourke.

The 123 000km2 catchment of the Culgoa – Balonne Rivers is semiͲarid and experiences a highly variable rainfall. The rainfall is reflected in the rivers’ flows which often cease for long periods of time, sometimes for up to a few years. During such prolonged droughts only very large waterholes continue to hold water. When the rains are good, the whole floodplain may turn into a slow flowing river around a metre deep.

These rivers are significant to the Bigambul, Kooma, Muruwari, Gungarri, Mandandanjii and Gamilaroi people who have traditionally lived, fished and told stories about these rivers and the life they support.

(Source: Sarac, Z., Sewell, H., Ringwood, G., Baker, E. and Nichols, S. (2012). Culgoa - Balonne: Talking fish, making connections with the rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin. Murray-Darling Basin Authority, Canberra.)

Identifier

0f4f6b80-0ff1-11e5-8eb9-005056a4d06a

Source

Map image attribution: Murray-Darling Basin Authority, Talking Fish Project see details...

Relation

Sarac, Z., Sewell, H., Ringwood, G., Baker, E. and Nichols, S. (2012). Culgoa - Balonne: Talking fish, making connections with the rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin. Murray-Darling Basin Authority, Canberra.  View or download from publisher...

Date

2015-06-10

License

CC-BY

Provenance

hand-drawn map georeferenced by Kevin Davies

Geolocation

Position: 43 (140 views)