Australia's inland rivers occur across the vast, predominantly arid regions of the continent, comprising 70% of its land area. Some, like the Murray-Darling eventually flow out to sea, whilst others like the Diamantina and Cooper Creek, flow inland to Lake Eyre. These river systems have highly variable flows, they come and go, flood large wetlands or lakes, wet vast floodplains, create new watercourses and dry out to meandering braided channels, billabongs and waterholes. They are fed by thousands of small creeks, and these 'arteries' drive ecological processes, create habitat for plants and animals and provide water for industry, irrigation, electricity generation and domestic use.

Inundated microchannels of the
Cooper Creek floodplain.
Photo ARIDFLO project.

The full fact sheet is available in Adobe Acrobat format:

   Fact Sheet 8 - Inland Rivers and Floodplain (facts08.pdf, 473Kb)

Topics covered

• Inland river characteristics
• Floodplains
• Boom and bust cycles
• Humans and inland rivers
• Inland river characteristics
• Threats to our inland rivers
• Water resource development
• The Narran and the Paroo
• Future river conservation and management
• Principles for inland river management

This Fact Sheet is the eighth in a series dealing with the management of riparian land.