The Strickland River is a major river in the
Western Province of
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...
. It is the longest and largest
tributary
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 they ...
of the
Fly River with a total length of including the ''Lagaip River'' the farthest distance
river source
The headwater of a river or stream is the geographical point of its beginning, specifically where surface runoff water begins to accumulate into a flowing channel of water. A river or stream into which one or many tributary rivers or streams flo ...
of the Strickland River. It was named after
Edward Strickland, vice-president of the
Geographical Society of Australasia[
] by the
New Guinea Exploration Expedition of 1885.
Discharge
Tributary
Strickland River List of tributaries by length.
*
Lagaip River
*
Ok Om River
*
Upper Lagaip River
*
Kera River
*
Porgera River
Environmental concerns
The
Porgera Gold Mine, run by
Barrick Gold, is a
mine near Strickland, which is the source of environmental concerns in the area. Since 1992, Barrick Gold has dumped mine waste, particularly
metal particulates or
tailings
In mining, tailings or tails are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction (gangue) of an ore. Tailings are different from overburden, which is the waste rock or other material ...
, directly into the river. This process of
riverine disposal by the mine has led to much controversy, with numerous deaths and environmental problems being blamed on the metal particulates.
See also
*
Strickland River languages
References
Further reading
Chairperson Quits Over River Pollution at Placer Dome’s Porgera Mine in Papua New Guinea
Rivers of Papua New Guinea
Fly River
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