The Darling River (or River Darling; Paakantyi: Baaka or Barka), is the third-longest river in Australia, measuring from its source in northern New South Wales to its confluence with the Murray River at Wentworth. Including its longest contiguous tributaries, it is long, making it the longest river system in Australia. The Darling River is the outback's most famous waterway.

As of the early 2020s, the Darling is in poor health, suffering from over-allocation of its waters to irrigation, pollution from pesticide runoff, and prolonged drought. During drought periods in 2019 it barely flowed at all. The river has a high salt content and declining water quality. Increased rainfall in its catchment in 2010 improved its flow, but the health of the river will depend on long-term management.

The Division of Darling, Division of Riverina-Darling, Electoral district of Darling and Electoral district of Lachlan and Lower Darling were named after the river.

History

thumb|left|230px|The flood in the Darling, 1890, oil on canvas by [[William Charles Piguenit]]

Aboriginal peoples have lived along the Darling River for tens of thousands of years. The Barkindji people called it Baaka 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 portion of the Darling River. Although he did not reach its confluence with the Murray River, he believed (correctly) that it did flow into the Murray River.

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. 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.

Large floods occurred in 1974 and 1976.

In 1992, the Darling River suffered from a severe cyanobacterial bloom that stretched the length of the river. 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 of environmental flows back into the Darling.

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.

A large flood occurred around Bourke in 2022.

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. The cause was low oxygen levels and high temperatures.

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. 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. 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. To quote another Henry Lawson poem:

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).

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.

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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)

</gallery>

See also

  • Darling River hardyhead
  • Great Darling Anabranch
  • List of Darling River distances
  • Water security in Australia
  • Darling Sedimentary Basin

References

  • "A river runs through it" Daily Telegraph article – 6 June 2007
  • Photos of the Darling/Barwon river between Brewarrina and Bourke, taken over 2003–2006. Flickr