Finke River

Finke River in the Lake Eyre Basin

Finke River

Finke River after rain

Finke River at permanent waterhole at Glen Helen Gorge

The Finke River is a river in the south of the Australian Territory Northern Territory and northern South Australia. He is one of the longest rivers in central Australia. It is an intermittent waters: He falls dry outside the rainy season and there is usually only of a series of water holes. When Upside-Down River flows but often also water below its dry riverbed. During the rare storm but it can become a raging torrent.

  • 2.1 Human History
  • 2.2 Geological formation

Geography

Course

The Finke River is formed at the southern edge of the MacDonnell Ranges in the Northern Territory to the west of Alice Springs from the confluence of the Davenport and Ormiston Creek Creek just north of Glen Helen Resort. This area belongs to the West MacDonnell National Park. At Glen Helen Resort, he breaks through for the first time in a ravine, a mountain chain. Then the river meanders over 600 miles to the southeast. To the south of Hermannsburg within the Finke Gorge National Park, it passes in another gorge - the Finke Gorge between the Krichauff Range and the James Range. There, the Boggy Hole, a year-round water source is located. Around 110 kilometers south of Alice Springs crosses the Stuart Highway the river.

In the further course of the Finke River passes through a drier area until it reaches the western edge of the Simpson Desert in the northern part of South Australia. In Witjira National Park be run is lost in the rule. In rare cases, the water flows from the Finke River into the Macumba River, which is also counted for the Finke River basin and flows into Lake Eyre. In this state, the river measures about 750 kilometers.

Tributaries with muzzle heights

  • Ormiston Creek - 652 m
  • Davenport Creek - 652 m
  • Rudalls Creek - 599 m
  • Bagot Creek - 578 m
  • Palm Creek - 553 m
  • Little Palm Creek - 540 m
  • Ellery Creek - 523 m
  • Merrick Gully - 497 m
  • Circle Gully - 496 m
  • Phillip Creek - 495 m
  • Norman Gully - 486 m
  • McMinn Creek - 457 m
  • Illawilla Creek - 441 m
  • Maloney Creek - 415 m
  • Five Mile Creek - 402 m
  • Fifteen Mile Creek - 396 m
  • Palmer River - 384 m
  • Hugh River - 316 m
  • Fifteen Mile Creek - 300 m
  • Lilla Creek - 280 m
  • Goyder Creek - 233 m
  • Hale River - 189 m The Hale River seeps mostly 75 km north of the mouth in the Simpson Desert. Only in very wet years it passes over the Finke River.
  • Coglin Creek - 184 m

Flushed lakes

The Finke River flows through water holes, most of which are also filled with water when the river is even dry. The most important include:

  • Glen Helen Gorge Waterhole, permanent water hole - about 630 m
  • Boggy Hole, permanent waterhole
  • Thamandilla Waterhole - 145 m

History

Human history

His name has received the Finke River by John McDouall Stuart in 1860. So He honored William Finke, a man from Adelaide, who supported Stuart's expedition. 1872, the flow of Ernest Giles was explored.

The Aborigines in parts of the Northern Territory call the river Larapinta. The dry riverbed served them for thousands of years as a trade route through the Outback.

Geological formation

The Finke River has long been described as the oldest river in the world. He meanders example, in the James Range deeply cut through the mountains. Since meander can only arise in flat plains, the river bed must have been formed before the mountain range rose. The orogeny in this area - as Alice Springs Orogeny called - is the time 400-300 million years ago ( during the Devonian and Carboniferous) dated. Thus have had parts of the river existed at that time.

Southern parts, however some need to be younger, as the region in what is now the border between the Northern Territory and South Australia were flooded in the Mesozoic from the sea, which led to the creation of the Great Artesian Basin. The age of the Finke River is therefore not unique. Other large river systems in Central Australia, the mountains rise, how the Todd River and the Hale River, have originated in the same period. In addition, there are in Australia and on other continents further eroded mountains which are about the same age or older than the MacDonnell Ranges. Current flows in these areas could have evolved from the same or older than the Finke River flows.

Flora and Fauna

Despite its course by dry desert area and the river many animals and plants provides a home. At Boggy Hole to find even a pelican. The Finke Hardy Head ( Craterocephalus centralis ) is an endemic species of the family of silversides as well as the Wüstengrundel Chlamydogobius japalpa.

Worldwide the Marie Palm ( Livistona mariae ) in the Finke Gorge National Park.

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