Darling River

File:William Piguenit - The Flood in the Darling 1890.jpg]]

Aboriginal peoples have lived along the Darling River for tens of thousands of years. The Barkindji people called it Baaka{{cite web |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-13/families-set-up-tent-town-on-darling-river-to-avoid-covid-19/12237976 |date=13 May 2020 |access-date=9 July 2020 |title=Indigenous community sets up camp on Darling River to avoid coronavirus risk in overcrowded homes |first=Aimee |last=Volkofsky |work=ABC News |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |quote=The Darling River, known locally as the Baaka, is central to Barkindji culture |archive-date=7 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200707174407/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-13/families-set-up-tent-town-on-darling-river-to-avoid-covid-19/12237976 |url-status=live }} 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 {{convert|483|km|adj=on}} portion of the Darling River.{{cite Australian Dictionary of Biography |id=A020206b |title=Mitchell, Sir Thomas Livingstone (1792–1855) |author=Baker, D. W. A. |date=1967 |access-date=17 March 2011 }} Although his party never reached the junction with the Murray River he correctly assumed the rivers joined.

In 1856, the Blandowski Expedition set off for the junction of the Darling and Murray Rivers to discover and collect fish species for the National Museum.{{cite Australian Dictionary of Biography |id=A030174b |title=Blandowski, William (1822–1878) |access-date=31 January 2011 }} The expedition was a success with 17,400 specimens arriving in Adelaide the next year.

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, the pastoralists of western New South Wales using it to send their wool by shallow-draft paddle steamer from busy river ports such as Bourke and Wilcannia to the South Australian railheads at Morgan and Murray Bridge. But over the past century the river's importance as a transportation route has declined.

In 1992, the Darling River suffered from a severe cyanobacterial bloom that stretched the length of the river.{{Cite news |url=http://www.clw.csiro.au/issues/water/rivers_estuaries/algal.html |title=Algal Blooms |access-date=15 March 2011 |date=28 January 2011 |publisher=CSIRO Land and Water |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110402183918/http://www.clw.csiro.au/issues/water/rivers_estuaries/algal.html |archive-date=2 April 2011 |df=dmy }} 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 purchased Toorale Station in northern New South Wales for $23 million. The purchase allowed the government to return {{convert|11|GL|e9impgal+e9USgal|spell=in|lk=on}} of environmental flows back into the Darling.{{Cite news |url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/wong-slaps-down-critics-of-23bn-water-purchase/story-e6frg6nf-1225817491470 |title=Wong slaps down critics of $23m Darling River water purchase |author=Franklin, Matthew |access-date=30 October 2010 |date=9 January 2010 |newspaper=The Australian |publisher=News Limited |archive-date=6 November 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101106130540/http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/wong-slaps-down-critics-of-23bn-water-purchase/story-e6frg6nf-1225817491470 |url-status=live }}

In 2019, a crisis on the Lower Darling saw up to 1 million fish die. A report by the Australia Institute said this was largely due to the decisions by the Murray-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 new Broken Hill pipeline and the Menindee 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.{{cite web |title=New South Wales government largely culpable for fish kill, report finds |date=2019-01-18 |website=The Guardian |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230328085125/https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jan/19/murray-darling-basin-authority-and-nsw-largely-culpable-for-fish-kill-report-finds |archive-date=2023-03-28 |url-status=live |url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jan/19/murray-darling-basin-authority-and-nsw-largely-culpable-for-fish-kill-report-finds}}

A worse fish kill occurred in 2023. Millions of dead bony bream, golden perch and silver perch, and Murray cod flowed down the river at Menindee.{{cite news |last1=Ormonde |first1=Bill |last2=Stonehouse |first2=Greta |date=18 March 2023 |title=Millions of fish dead in the worst mass kill ever to hit Menindee region, in NSW's far west |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-18/nsw-menindee-mass-fish-kill-worst-in-region/102115184 |work=ABC News |access-date=23 December 2023 |archive-date=23 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231223075102/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-18/nsw-menindee-mass-fish-kill-worst-in-region/102115184 |url-status=live }} The cause was low oxygen levels and high temperatures.

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.{{cite web|url=http://www2.mdbc.gov.au/nrm/water_issues/surface_water.html |title=Surface Water Resources |date=29 October 2006 |publisher=Murray Darling Basin Commission |access-date=31 January 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110219013719/http://www2.mdbc.gov.au/nrm/water_issues/surface_water.html |archive-date=19 February 2011 |df=dmy }}

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. These tributaries include the Balonne 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], the Macintyre River and its tributaries such as the Dumaresq River and the Severn Rivers (there are two – one on either side of the state border); the Gwydir River; the Namoi River; the Castlereagh River; and the Macquarie River. Other rivers join the Darling near Bourke or below – the Bogan River, the Warrego River and Paroo River.

Image:Darling River Louth.JPG]]

South east of Broken Hill, the Menindee Lakes are a series of lakes that were once connected to the Darling River by short creeks.{{cite web |url=http://www.discoveringthedarling.com.au/index.php?pgid=62 |title=Menindee Lakes |work=Discovering the Darling |publisher=Murray Darling Environmental Foundation |access-date=16 January 2012 |archive-date=3 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110403030121/http://www.discoveringthedarling.com.au/index.php?pgid=62 |url-status=dead }} The Menindee Lake Scheme has reduced the frequency of flooding in the Menindee Lakes. As a result, about 13,800 hectares of lignum and 8,700 hectares of Black box have been destroyed. Weirs and constant low flows have fragmented the river system and blocked fish passage.

The Darling River runs south-south-west, leaving the Far West region of New South Wales, to join the Murray River on the New South Wales – Victoria border at Wentworth, New South Wales.

The Barrier Highway at Wilcannia, the Silver City Highway at Wentworth and the Broken Hill railway line at Menindee, all cross the Darling River. Part of the river north of Menindee marks the border of Kinchega National Park. In response to the 1956 Murray River flood, a weir was constructed at Menindee to mitigate flows from the Darling River.

The north of the Darling River is in the Southeast Australia temperate savanna ecoregion and the southwest of the Darling is part of the Murray Darling Depression ecoregion.

Major settlements along the river include Brewarrina, Bourke, Louth, Tilpa, Wilcannia, Menindee, Pooncarie and Wentworth. Wentworth was Australia's busiest inland port in the late 1880s.

Navigation by steamboat to Brewarrina was first achieved in 1859.{{cite web|url=http://www.centraldarling.nsw.gov.au/about/1001.html |title=The Darling River |publisher=Central Darling Shire Council |access-date=30 October 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110215213644/http://centraldarling.nsw.gov.au/about/1001.html |archive-date=15 February 2011 |df=dmy }} Brewarrina was also the location of intertribal meetings for Indigenous Australians who speak Darling and live in the river basin. Ancient fish traps in the river provided food for feasts. These heritage listed rock formations have been estimated at more than 40,000 years old making them the oldest man-made structure on the planet.

Australian poet Henry Lawson wrote a well-known ironic tribute to the Darling River.{{cite web | last = Lawson | first = Henry | title = The Darling River | publisher = Classic Reader | url = http://www.classicreader.com/read.php/bookid.741/sec./ | access-date = 2008-05-28}} To quote another Henry Lawson poem:

{{blockquote|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.|Henry Lawson}}

He also wrote about the river in The Union Buries Its Dead and "Andy's Gone With Cattle". Other bush poets who have written about the river include Scots-Australian Will H. Ogilvie (1869–1963) and Breaker Morant (1864–1902).{{cite web|url=http://www.bourke.local-e.nsw.gov.au/tourism/13731/1018.html |title=The Darling River |publisher=Bourke Shire Council |access-date=31 January 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110216033255/http://www.bourke.local-e.nsw.gov.au/tourism/13731/1018.html |archive-date=16 February 2011 |df=dmy }}

The Australian band Midnight Oil wrote a song called "The Barka-Darling River" for their album Resist, drawing attention to the negative effects of cotton farming on the environment and people connected to the river.

Image:Bourke_Darling_River.jpg|The Darling River from Bourke wharf (2010)

Image:Old bridge over Darling in Bourke.JPG|Old North Bourke Bridge, opened in 1883 (2014)

Image:Bridge over the Darling at North Bourke-1 (5141753186).jpg| Lifting span of the old North Bourke Bridge

File:AU-NSW-North Bourke-Old North Bourke bridge northside-2021.jpg|Old North Bourke bridge, in flood, northern side, North Bourke (2021)

File:AU-NSW-North Bourke-Old North Bourke bridge southside-2021.jpg|Old North Bourke bridge, in flood, southern side, North Bourke (2021)

{{stack|{{Portal|New South Wales|Environment|Water}}}}

• Darling River hardyhead
• Great Darling Anabranch
• {{Section link|List of rivers of Australia|New South Wales}}
• List of Darling River distances
• Water security in Australia
• Darling Sedimentary Basin

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{{Commons category|Darling River|
Darling River}}

• {{cite web|url=http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/ieo/MacquarieBogan/maplg.htm|title=Macquarie-Bogan River catchment|format=map|work=Office of Environment and Heritage|publisher=Government of New South Wales}}
• {{cite web|url=http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/ieo/FarWest/maplg.htm|title=Barwon, Darling and Far Western catchments|format=map|work=Office of Environment and Heritage|publisher=Government of New South Wales}}
• [http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,21854160-5006009,00.html "A river runs through it"] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20121230173724/www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,21854160-5006009,00.html |date=30 December 2012 }} Daily Telegraph article – 6 June 2007
• [https://www.flickr.com/photos/19959143@N00/sets/72157594202630154/detail Photos of the Darling/Barwon river between Brewarrina and Bourke, taken over 2003–2006.] Flickr

{{Rivers of the Darling River catchment |state=autocollapse}}

{{Rivers of New South Wales |state=autocollapse}}

{{Rivers of the Murray–Darling basin|state=collapsed}}

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Category:Rivers in the Riverina

Category:Far West (New South Wales)