Mary River (Northern Territory)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Mary River flows in the
Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...
of
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 ...
and is a site of the
Mary River National Park Mary River National Park is an Australian national park located about east and stretching to the southeast of Darwin in the Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Austr ...
.


Description

The river is approximately long and rises about east of Pine Creek. The catchment area is over but is
ephemeral Ephemerality (from the Greek word , meaning 'lasting only one day') is the concept of things being transitory, existing only briefly. Academically, the term ephemeral constitutionally describes a diverse assortment of things and experiences, fr ...
and only flows in the
wet season The wet season (sometimes called the rainy season or monsoon season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. Generally, the season lasts at least one month. The term ''green season'' is also sometimes used a ...
, during the dry it is a series of pools and
billabong In Australian English, a billabong ( ) is a small body of water, usually permanent. It is usually an oxbow lake caused by a change in course of a river or creek, but other types of small lakes, ponds or waterholes are also called billabongs ...
s. The catchment has several small reserve areas forming the
Mary River National Park Mary River National Park is an Australian national park located about east and stretching to the southeast of Darwin in the Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Austr ...
to help protect it. The
Arnhem Highway The Arnhem Highway is a 227 kilometre highway in the Northern Territory, Australia. It links the mining town of Jabiru, in Kakadu National Park, to the Stuart Highway Stuart Highway is a major Australian highway. It runs from Darwin, N ...
crosses the river near one of the park areas. It also supports multiple land uses including
pastoralism Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry where domesticated animals (known as "livestock") are released onto large vegetated outdoor lands (pastures) for grazing, historically by nomadic people who moved around with their herds. The anim ...
, fishing, mining, defence force, tourism, conservation, and horticulture. Pastoralism, particularly cattle grazing is the dominant use, taking up 63% of the catchment area. The river has a total of ten
tributaries A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream ('' 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 into which the ...
, including the Little Mary River, MacKinlay River, Bowerbird Creek, Mingloo Creek and Douglas Creek. It has a mean annual outflow of . Its lower reaches form part of the Adelaide and Mary River Floodplains
Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...
. The river is noted for its population of
saltwater crocodile The saltwater crocodile (''Crocodylus porosus'') is a crocodilian native to saltwater habitats, brackish wetlands and freshwater rivers from India's east coast across Southeast Asia and the Sundaland to northern Australia and Micronesia. It ha ...
s, and is a breeding area for
barramundi The barramundi (''Lates calcarifer''), Asian sea bass, or giant sea perch (also known as dangri, apahap or siakap) is a species of catadromous fish in the family Latidae of the order Carangiformes. The species is widely distributed in the I ...
, the target fish species for recreational anglers in the area. It is one of eight rivers in the Northern Territory with a large floodplain system in their catchment area. The wetlands occupy an area of approximately and are predominantly freshwater, although they suffer from saltwater intrusion. The wetlands provide a mosaic of habitats and are listed in the Directory of Important Wetlands. It is almost unique for an Australian river in that it has had no major tidal estuary as a river outlet for at least the last 2,000 years.


Flora and fauna

The Mary River floodplains form a vital habitat in the dry season for some 250 species of birds including
jabiru The jabiru ( or ; ''Jabiru mycteria'') is a large stork found in the Americas from Mexico to Argentina, except west of the Andes. It sometimes wanders into the United States, usually in Texas, but has also been reported in Mississippi, Oklahoma ...
, jacana,
brolga The brolga (''Antigone rubicunda''), formerly known as the native companion, is a bird in the crane (bird), crane family. It has also been given the name Australian crane, a term coined in 1865 by well-known ornithology, ornithologist John Gou ...
and
pygmy geese Pygmy geese are a group of very small "perching ducks" in the genus ''Nettapus'' which breed in the Old World tropics. They are the smallest of all wildfowl. As the "perching ducks" are a paraphyletic group, they need to be placed elsewhere. The ...
. Four threatened plants are found along the river including Goodenia quadrifida, Schoutenia ovata and the endangered Cycas armstrongii and Helicteres macrothrix. The
riparian A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. In some regions, the terms riparian woodland, riparian forest, riparian buffer zone, riparian corridor, and riparian strip are used to characterize a ripar ...
vegetation found on the upper catchment includes mixed woodlands of
pandanus ''Pandanus'' is a genus of monocots with about 578 accepted species. They are palm-like, dioecious trees and shrubs native to the Old World tropics and subtropics. Common names include pandan, screw palm and screw pine. The genus is classified ...
,
wattle Wattle or wattles may refer to: Plants *''Acacia sensu lato'', polyphyletic genus of plants commonly known as wattle, especially in Australian English **''Acacia'' ***Black wattle, common name for several species of acacia ***Golden wattle, ''A ...
,
paperbark ''Melaleuca'' () is a genus of nearly 300 species of plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, commonly known as paperbarks, honey-myrtles, bottlebrushes or tea-trees (although the last name is also applied to species of '' Leptospermum''). They ...
and freshwater
mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...
s with an understorey of grass and sedges. Weeds are becoming problematic with shrub horehounds, spiny head sida and wild passion fruit vine featuring. 34 species of fish are found in the river, including the Macleay's glassfish, barred
grunter Grunters or tigerperches are ray-finned fishes in the Family (biology), family Terapontidae (also spelled Teraponidae, Theraponidae or Therapontidae). This family is part of the Superfamily (taxonomy), superfamily Percoidea of the Order (biology ...
, sooty grunter, fly-specked hardyhead, toothless catfish, flathead goby, spangled perch,
barramundi The barramundi (''Lates calcarifer''), Asian sea bass, or giant sea perch (also known as dangri, apahap or siakap) is a species of catadromous fish in the family Latidae of the order Carangiformes. The species is widely distributed in the I ...
, oxeye herring, rainbowfish, black-banded rainbowfish, northern trout gudgeon, bony bream, catfish, Hyrtl's tandan, freshwater longtom, seven-spot
archerfish The archerfish (also known as spinner fish or archer fish) or Toxotidae are a monotypic family (although some include a second genus) of perciform tropical fish known for their unique predation technique of "shooting down" land-based insects a ...
and the sleepy cod. Two threatened goanna species, Varanus mertensi and Varanus panoptes, are found along the river, as is the vulnerable yellow-snouted gecko (Lucasium occultum).


History

The
traditional owners Native title is the set of rights, recognised by Australian law, held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups or individuals to land that derive from their maintenance of their traditional laws and customs. These Aboriginal title rig ...
of the area are the
Wulwulam The Wulwulam, also known as the ''Woolwonga,'' were an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory. They are reputed to have been almost completely exterminated in the 1880s in reprisal for an incident in which some members of the trib ...
people in the south and the
Limilngan The Limilngan, also known by the exonym Minitja and (based on a language dialect) Buneidja, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory. Earlier ethnologists such as Norman Tindale referred to the group as Puneitja or variants o ...
people in the Northern floodplain country. The river was named by
John McDouall Stuart John McDouall Stuart (7 September 18155 June 1866), often referred to as simply "McDouall Stuart", was a Scottish explorer and one of the most accomplished of all Australia's inland explorers. Stuart led the first successful expedition to tra ...
in 1862. He wrote in his diary "Country burning all round. Lat 13°38'24". This branch I have named the Mary, in honour of Miss Mary Chambers." Stuart always believed that the Mary was a branch of the
Adelaide river The Adelaide River is a river in the Northern Territory of Australia. Course and features The river rises in the Litchfield National Park and flows generally northwards to Clarence Strait, joined by eight tributaries including the west branc ...
and always referred to it as "The Mary, Adelaide river".


See also

* List of rivers of Northern Territory


References


External links


Northern Territory Government entry on the Mary River National Parkpdf maps of river and environs
{{Authority control Rivers of the Northern Territory Arnhem Land