Manning River
Manning River above Mount George
The Manning River is a river in the east of the Australian state of New South Wales.
Its river system is one of the few in Australia that are not regulated and are used for production of drinking water or water for agriculture. The local water supply is fed by Lake Bootawa, but this is an " off-line reservoir ", which is equipped with a pump storage power plant. It is populated only when the water level of the river allows this without any negative impact on the environment. At the headwaters of the Barnard River, a tributary of the Manning River, there is a small weir which usually is but out of service until it is needed. It ran water from the power plant in Bayswater (south of Muswellbrook ), but was dismantled in 2006 partly because it was so rarely used.
The lower river is a delta with various arms of the river, which divide the coastal land in large islands, such as the Mitchells Islands or Iceland Oxley.
History
1818 John Oxley crossed the Harrington Inlet and the Farquhar Inlet and gave them their names. He did this on his journey from the Hastings River at Port Macquarie Port Stephens. The Manning River itself was first explored on behalf of the Australian Agricultural Company by Henry Dangar in 1825 and again in 1826 and measured. On the measurement sheet, the river was registered as Boolumbahtee River. This was the name he gave the Aborigines.
Later in 1826, the river in Manning River to the Vice Governor of the Australian Agricultural Company, Sir William Manning was renamed. In the same year was declared the river to the northern boundary of the nineteen administrative districts of the region in New South Wales, where settlers could claim readily country.
By 1913, ships brought that supplied the local coast, also goods up the river.
Geography
The Manning River is fed by the Pigna Barney River, from the Barnard River, from Nowendoc River and Gloucester River. In Taree Manning River, the splits into a southern arm, which flows in Old Bar in the Tasman Sea, and a northern arm of the Dawson River and the Lansdowne River and receives flows at Harrington in the ocean. Thus, the river also has two mouths.
Wingham is the furthest upstream location point that the supply ships could reach, and thus became the most important port of the region. The old loading dock in Wingham Brush was recently restored. The town lies on the River at Taree Tinonee.
The Manning River is the only river in the two deltas in the southern hemisphere and the only river with more outlets with the exception of the Nile in Egypt. He is one of the few major rivers in Australia, which are fed every year of water from the snow melt. The melt water comes from the Barrington River, a tributary of the Gloucester River, which rises in the Barrington Tops.
Tributaries with muzzle heights
- Backwater Creek - 1141 m
- Pigna Barney River - 389 m
- Barnard River - 94 m
- Nowendoc River - 52 m
- Gloucester River - 43 m
- Bakers Creek - 35 m
- Burrell Creek - 16 m
- Dingo Creek - 13 m
- Dawson River - 0 m - The North Arm
- Scotts Creek - 0 m - The North Arm
- Lansdowne River - 0 m - The North Arm
Ecology
In the Manning River many Australian oysters are drawn and there are many fish in it, eg the Platycephalus fuscus, a fish commonly found in Australian estuaries. In the lower reaches of the river you can often see dolphins and sharks, of which swim some way to Wingham up.
Whales are also found occasionally in the river, mainly in the larger Harrington Inlet, but also sometimes in Farquar Inlet, but they usually do not swim far up the river. But on 16 September 1994 swam a rare tropical Bryde's whale, which was 9 meters long and was called by the people " Free Willy ", up to Taree up to where there is only fresh water in the river. He became a tourist attraction and environmental activists repeatedly tried unsuccessfully to free him from the river. But after 92 days he swam on his own initiative back out into the open sea.
Events
In Taree there is the annual Manning River Summer Festival, in which rowed and sailed. At the long Easter weekend, the Taree Powerboat Club Spectacular will be held on the Manning River.
Economy
On the Manning River, there are many tourist boats.
Commercial fishing and oyster farming there on the river. The peak season for oyster farmers is the period from September to March and the average annual yield is 310 755 dozen oysters. Big Oyster, a building shaped like an open oyster shell in Taree is an icon for the connection of the city with the oyster industry.