Moruya River

Moruya River. Looking upriver from the breakwater on the north side of the mouth

The Moruya River is a river in the southeast of the Australian state of New South Wales.

Geography

The Moruya River is a short salt-water estuary, fed by Deua River. The city is situated on the Moruya River about 10 km from the coast. Earlier, the river was navigable to Moruya and was sailed by the Illawarra Steam Navigation Company.

The Princes Highway crosses the river in Moruya. The first bridge was built in 1876. Due to frequent flooding had to be Built in 1900, 1945 and 1966, new bridges.

On the river you will find the small town of Moruya Heads.

Threshold

The river had a threshold at its mouth into the Tasman Sea. The threshold was dangerous for shipping and because of several threats to smaller vessels and because they represented an obstacle to the entrance of large ships, the first major settlement was further north on the coast in the area Broulee. In 1841 a flood swept away the threshold and the city Moruya, which was freely available now, developed at the expense of Broulee, even if there was still problems with the threshold later. Finally Moruya granted from the 1850s the easiest access to the gold fields of Araluen on Deua River.

The Benandra, built a wooden steam ship of the Illawarra Steam Navigation Company for the transport of goods, was lost on 25 March 1924, when it ran aground on a sandbar near the ancient rock threshold. At least one sailor came there to death.

The threshold has now been defused by a breakwater of rocks on the north side of the river.

Tributaries with muzzle heights

• Wamban Creek - 9 m
• Deua River - 9 m
• Mogendoura Creek - 7m

Trivia

The granite for the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge comes from quarries on the banks of the Moruya River.