Frontiers of Earth Science in China

, Volume 4, Issue 4, pp 375–385 | Cite as

Rivers in Australia

Feature Article
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Abstract

As a continent, Australia is unusual. It has a long history of habitation by a relatively small population of Aboriginals with a low technology culture. Just over 200 years ago, in 1788, it was invaded by a technological society from the UK, and the settlers brought with them an understanding of rivers and the landscapes in which they were situated which was quite at odds with the reality of the Australian continent. Australia is a piece of old continental crust derived from the break-up of Gondwana that, unlike other Gondwana continents, has experienced little tectonic modification since the break-up. It is a low relief continent dominated by arid and semi arid climates. Australian river systems have poor slope-channel coupling and poor hydrological connectivity and are characterized by low rates of sediment delivery. The flow of Australian rivers has high interannual variability, two to three times that of comparable rivers elsewhere, and highly variable flood behavior. In this paper, examples are given of particular Australian rivers to illustrate the manner in which the morphological and climatic characteristics of the continent combine to produce some distinctive river systems.

Keywords

Australia rivers hydrological variability sediment delivery hydrological connectivity river channels 
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Copyright information

© Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Resource Management and Geographythe University of MelbourneVictoriaAustralia

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