Prelims ask
Westward, Darling longer, Great Dividing Range, Australia’s longest system.
Oceania
Murray–Darling
Longest river system in Australia.
- Source
- Murray: Australian Alps, Great Dividing Range. Darling: the range in Queensland.
- Countries
- Australia.
- Direction
- The Murray flows west, then south.
- Mouth
- Southern Ocean, through Lake Alexandrina. The mouth often has little or no outflow.
- Length
- The system is about 3,670 km. The Darling is longer than the Murray.
- Major tributaries
- Darling, Murrumbidgee, Goulburn.
- Delta or estuary
- Terminal lakes and a restricted mouth. Not an open delta.
- Basin
- Australia’s irrigation basin. Highly variable flow. The Snowy Mountains scheme diverts water westward.
- One exam fact
- Born on the eastern highlands, within sight of Pacific drainage, and flows away from the Pacific.
Mains use
The extra-Indian pair to the Orange: an east-coast divide, a west-flowing trunk, a stressed mouth.