The Acheron River, a minor inland
perennial river
A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a strea ...
of the
Goulburn
Goulburn ( ) is a regional city in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, approximately south-west of Sydney and north-east of Canberra. It was proclaimed as Australia's first inland city through letters patent by Queen Victor ...
Broken catchment, part of the
Murray-Darling basin, is located in the lower
South Eastern Highlands
The South Eastern Highlands is an interim Australian bioregion in eastern Australia, that spans parts of the states and territories of New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, and Victoria. The bioregion comprises and is approx ...
bioregion
A bioregion is a geographical area, on land or at sea, defined not by administrative boundaries, but by distinct characteristics such as plant and animal species, ecological systems, soils and landforms, Human settlement, human settlements, and ...
and
Northern Country/North Central regions of the
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
n state of
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India
* Victoria (state), a state of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital
* Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...
. The headwaters of the Acheron River rise on the northwestern slopes of the Yarra Ranges, below The Knobs and descend to flow into the Goulburn River near .
Location and features
The river rises below The Knobs on the northwestern slopes of the Yarra Ranges, part 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. It runs roughl ...
, within the
Yarra Ranges National Park. The flows generally north by west, much of 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 ...
following the path of the Acheron Way, through rugged national park as the river descends, then north, joined by nine tributaries including the
Steavenson, Little Steavenson, and
Little Rivers, before reaching its
confluence
In geography, a confluence (also ''conflux'') occurs where two or more watercourses join to form a single channel (geography), channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main ...
with the Goulburn River at the settlement of , south of the town of Alexandra. The river descends over its course.
[
The river is crossed by the ]Maroondah Highway
Maroondah Highway (also known as Whitehorse Road from Deepdene to Surrey Hills) is a major east–west thoroughfare in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, and a highway connecting the north-eastern fringes of Melbourne to Mansfield, at the lowe ...
north of the locale of St Fillans, and again at the settlement of .
Etymology
In Australian Aboriginal languages
The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...
, the river is variously named ''Agaroon'', ''Nyaggeron'', ''Ngaragon'', and ''Niagaroon'' with no defined meanings for each of the words.[
The origin of the river's current name is thought to be derived from the ]Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
spelling of Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
''Akheron'' or "River of Woe", from ''akhos'', meaning "distress". The Acheron was one of the rivers of the underworld
The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld.
...
or Kingdom of Hades, and also the name of a river in Epirus, Greece.[
]
See also
*
References
Goulburn Broken catchment
Rivers of Greater Melbourne (region)
Rivers of Hume (region)
Tributaries of the Goulburn River
{{VictoriaAU-river-stub