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The Shoalhaven River is a perennial river that rises from the Southern Tablelands and flows into an open mature wave dominated barrier estuary near Nowra on the
South Coast South Coast is a name often given to coastal areas to the south of a geographical region or major metropolitan area. Geographical Australia *South Coast (New South Wales), the coast of New South Wales, Australia, south of Sydney * South Coast (Q ...
of
New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...
,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
.


Location and features

The Shoalhaven River rises on the eastern side of the
Great Dividing Range The Great Dividing Range, also known as the East Australian Cordillera or the Eastern Highlands, is a cordillera system in eastern Australia consisting of an expansive collection of mountain ranges, plateaus and rolling hills, that runs rough ...
, below Euranbene Mountain, about southwest of
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...
. The upper reaches of the river flow northwards through an upland pastoral district near the town of Braidwood. The river works its way down into a remote canyon east of Goulburn and emerges into the coastal lowlands at Nowra in the
Shoalhaven The City of Shoalhaven is a local government area in the south-eastern coastal region of New South Wales, Australia. The area is about south of Sydney. The Princes Highway passes through the area, and the South Coast railway line traverses t ...
district, where it is spanned by the historic
Nowra Bridge The Nowra Bridge is a road bridge that carries the Princes Highway over the Shoalhaven River, at Nowra in the Shoalhaven Council local government area, on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia. The bridge joins the main area of Nowra to ...
. The river is joined by thirty-four
tributaries A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drain ...
, including the Mongarlowe, Corang, Endrick, and
Kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern ...
rivers, and descends over its
course Course may refer to: Directions or navigation * Course (navigation), the path of travel * Course (orienteering), a series of control points visited by orienteers during a competition, marked with red/white flags in the terrain, and corresponding ...
.


Berrys Canal

The estuary has two entrances, approximately apart, that flow into the Shoalhaven Bight within the
Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea (Māori: ''Te Tai-o-Rēhua'', ) is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer ...
of the South Pacific Ocean. The southern entrance is located at Crookhaven Heads and is permanently open. The Shoalhaven River flows south via Berrys Canal to Greenwell Point, where it is joined by the Crookhaven River and then flows east past Orient Point into the bight, north of Culburra. The Berrys Canal between the Shoalhaven and the Crookhaven was constructed in June 1822 by convicts overseen by Hamilton Hume under the direction of Alexander Berry to facilitate ship transport to the original European settlement located in the region. The construction of the canal formed Comerong Island. The canal was dug using own hand tools, and was the first land navigable canal in Australia. Berrys Canal remains one of two navigable canals in New South Wales, the other being the
Alexandra Canal Alexandra Canal may refer to: * Alexandra Canal (New South Wales), in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia *Alexandra Canal, Singapore Alexandra Canal is a 1.2-kilometer long functional and concrete canal in Singapore which stretches from Tanglin Ro ...
. The northern entrance is located south of Shoalhaven Heads, and is open intermittently, at times of peak flow and during flood events.


Use for water supply

Tallowa Dam Tallowa Dam, completed in 1976, is a concrete gravity dam with central overflow spillway, located on the Shoalhaven River, downstream from the river's confluence with the Kangaroo River. The dam wall of is high and in length. At 100% capacity ...
is the only major dam on the Shoalhaven, and is a part of the Shoalhaven Scheme. It impounds the river's lower reaches to form Lake Yarrunga and part of Sydney's water supply. Some water is pumped out of the lake and over the Southern Highlands into
Lake Burragorang Lake Burragorang is a man-made reservoir in the lower Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia, serving as a major water supply for greater metropolitan Sydney. The dam impounding the lake, the Warragamba Dam, is located approximately ...
. Proposals for a much larger water storage at Welcome Reef on the upper Shoalhaven have been shelved.


Environment

The Shoalhaven River and its main tributary the Kangaroo River were once renowned as an Australian bass fishery. Unfortunately, Tallowa Dam has been a potent barrier to migratory native fish with estuarine/marine juvenile stages, blocking species including Australian bass from more than 80% of their former range in the Shoalhaven system. Recent stockings of hatchery-bred Bass in Lake Yarrunga are an attempt to remediate the situation. A fishway for Tallowa Dam was completed in August 2009. This fishway is designed to allow for the movement of bass and other native fish over the dam. Lake Yarrunga has also suffered the illegal introduction of highly damaging
European carp The Eurasian carp or European carp (''Cyprinus carpio''), widely known as the common carp, is a widespread freshwater fish of eutrophic waters in lakes and large rivers in Europe and Asia.Fishbase''Cyprinus carpio'' Linnaeus, 1758/ref>Arkive Th ...
, which are now present in high densities.


History


Indigenous history

The traditional custodians of the land are Jerrinja tribal peoples the surrounding Shoalhaven River, in its lower reaches, are the Aboriginal peoples of the lower catchment are Jerrinja tribal peoples which are the traditional custodians of the Shoalhaven . Some of the culturally important Aboriginal places in the Shoalhaven include Coolangatta Mountain, Bundarwa (Beecroft Headland), Cambewarra Mountain, ''Didthul'' or
Pigeon House Mountain Pigeon House Mountain ( Aboriginal: ''Didthul'') is a mountain at an elevation of on the Budawang Range that is situated within the Morton National Park, located on the South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. The prominent remnant ...
,
Kangaroo Valley Kangaroo Valley is a river valley along the Kangaroo River in the Shoalhaven region of New South Wales, Australia, located west of the seaside in the City of Shoalhaven. It is also the name of the small suburb within it, formerly known as Osbo ...
, Burrill Lake, and Murramarang Aboriginal Area and its environs. The upper part of the Shoalhaven river, in the district around modern-day Braidwood, is the traditional land of the Walbanga people.


European history

The explorer and navigator George Bass found the entrance to the Shoalhaven River during his whaleboat voyage down the south coast of New South Wales in 1797. He gave the name Shoals Haven to the river (now known as the Crookhaven River) because of the shoals of mud and sand he found at the river mouth. Approximately west of Nowra are a series of properties along the banks of the Shoalhaven River that were a gift to the people of Australia from Arthur Boyd, his wife, Yvonne, and the Boyd family. Entrusted to the Bundanon Trust, along with further gifts by Boyd, including copyright of all of his artwork, these properties provide an environment that promotes visual arts, writing, music and other performing arts, and the promotion of education and research in the arts.


Crossings

The river crossings, from its headwaters to its river mouth, include: *
Ballalaba Ballalaba is a locality in the Queanbeyan–Palerang Regional Council, New South Wales, Australia. It is located about 30 km southwest of Braidwood on the road to Cooma and on the Shoalhaven River The Shoalhaven River is a perennial r ...
bridge * Farringdon crossing between Farringdon and
Bendoura Bendoura is a locality in the Queanbeyan–Palerang Regional Council, New South Wales, Australia. It is located about 20 km southwest of Braidwood on the road to Cooma and on the eastern bank of the Shoalhaven River The Shoalhaven Riv ...
*
Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...
bridge *
Warri The city of Warri is an oil hub within South-South Nigeria and houses an annex of the Delta State Government House. Warri City is one of the major hubs of the petroleum industry in Nigeria. Warri and her twin city, Uvwie are the commercial ...
Bridge carries the Kings Highway, near Braidwood. A bridge at this location was first opened on 23 September 1874, and later replaced by the current structure. * Stewart's Crossing is a ford on Stewart's Crossing Road. * Oallen Crossing was formerly a flood-prone single-lane timber bridge with a low-level concrete floodway for the Oallen Ford Road at Oallen Ford, near Nerriga, constructed in 1936. The timber bridge and floodway has been replaced by a longer higher concrete bridge crossing slightly downstream, around mid-2015 (date needs checking). . The new crossing is designed to permit higher speed travel and eliminates some sharp bends on the western side of the river and only to be overtopped by much deeper 1:20-year flood events., url=http://www.southcoastregister.com.au/story/2864017/one-new-crossing-gets-under-way/?cs=203, *
Nowra Bridge The Nowra Bridge is a road bridge that carries the Princes Highway over the Shoalhaven River, at Nowra in the Shoalhaven Council local government area, on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia. The bridge joins the main area of Nowra to ...
carries the
Princes Highway Princes Highway is a major road in Australia, extending from Sydney via Melbourne to Adelaide through the states of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. It has a length of (along Highway 1) or via the former alignments of the hi ...
between
Bomaderry Bomaderry (locally known as "Bommo") is a town in the Shoalhaven council district area of New South Wales, Australia. At the , it had a population of 8,718 people. It is on the north shore of the Shoalhaven River, across the river from Nowra, ...
and Nowra. * Comerong Island Ferry carries vehicles and pedestrians to Comerong Island near the river mouth. Historically, there was once a ford crossing at the former village of Larbert.


Gallery

Image:Shoalhaven River Gorge Morton National Park near Bundanoon.jpg, Shoalhaven River Gorge, near Bundanoon Image:Shoalhaven River.jpg, Shoalhaven River, near Nowra Image:Shoalhaven river.jpg, With paddlers


See also

*
List of rivers of New South Wales This page discusses the rivers and hydrography of the state of New South Wales, Australia. The principal topographic feature of New South Wales is the series of low highlands and plateaus called the Great Dividing Range, which extend from nort ...
*
List of rivers in New South Wales (L-Z) A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
* Morton National Park *
Rivers of New South Wales This page discusses the rivers and hydrography of the state of New South Wales, Australia. The principal topographic feature of New South Wales is the series of low highlands and plateaus called the Great Dividing Range, which extend from ...
* Shoalhaven Scheme


References


Further reading

* {{Authority control Rivers of New South Wales City of Shoalhaven South Coast (New South Wales) Southern Tablelands