Cooper Creek Crossing in Innamincka, Strzelecki Desert, South Australia.

Cooper Creek (28°23′S, 137°41′E) is one of the most famous and yet least visited rivers in Australia. It is also known as Cooper's Creek or the Barcoo River. Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 353 pixelsFull resolution (1278 × 564 pixel, file size: 143 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 353 pixelsFull resolution (1278 × 564 pixel, file size: 143 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Location of Innamincka in South Australia (red) Pub, Station and General Store in Innamincka Burke and Wills dig tree Cooper Creek Crossing in Innamincka, Strzelecki Desert, South Australia. ... The Strzelecki Desert is located in South Australia. ... Capital Adelaide Government Constitutional monarchy Governor Marjorie Jackson-Nelson Premier Mike Rann (ALP) Federal representation  - House seats 11  - Senate seats 12 Gross State Product (2004-05)  - Product ($m)  $59,819 (5th)  - Product per capita  $38,838/person (7th) Population (End of September 2006)  - Population  1,558,200 (5th)  - Density  1. ... This bridge across the Danube River links Hungary with Slovakia. ...

It rises west of the Great Dividing Range on low ground as two central Queensland rivers, the Thomson between Longreach and Charters Towers, and the Barcoo in the area around Barcaldine, about 500 kilometres inland from Rockhampton. The Great Divide runs around the entire eastern and south-eastern edge of Australia The Great Dividing Range, also known as the Eastern Highlands, is Australias most substantial mountain range. ... Capital Brisbane Government Constitutional monarchy Governor Quentin Bryce Premier Peter Beattie (ALP) Federal representation  - House seats 28  - Senate seats 12 Gross State Product (2004-05)  - Product ($m)  $158,506 (3rd)  - Product per capita  $40,170/person (6th) Population (End of November 2006)  - Population  4,164,590 (3rd)  - Density  2. ... The Thomson River is situated in western Queensland, Australia, and forms part of the Lake Eyre Basin. ... Australian Stockmans Hall of Fame in Longreach Location of Longreach in Queensland (red) Longreach is a town and shire located in central western Queensland, Australia and is approximately 700 kilometres from the coast, west of Rockhampton. ... Location of Charters Towers in Queensland (red) Charters Towers is a city and Local Government Area in northern Queensland, Australia. ... The Barcoo River in western Queensland rises on the northern slopes of the Warrego Range and unites with the Thomson River to form Coopers Creek. ... Barcaldine is a small town located in Western Queensland, Australia, approximately 520 kilometres by road west of the city of Rockhampton. ... Rockhampton, sometimes abbreviated to Rocky, is a city in Central Queensland, Australia, located inland from the Capricorn Coast on the Bruce Highway, approximately north of Queenslands capital city, Brisbane. ...

Cooper Creek spreads out into a vast area of meandering ephemeral channels, making its way roughly south into the far south-west corner of Queensland before turning due west into South Australia towards Lake Eyre. In most years, it is absorbed into the earth, goes to fill channels and the many permanent waterholes, or simply evaporates without reaching Lake Eyre. In very wet years, however, it manages to flood the entire Channel Country and reaches the lake. Studies have clearly shown that, although with a mean annual flow of around 2.3km³ (though ranging at Barcoo from an estimated 0.02km³ in 1902 to an estimated 12km³ in 1950) the Cooper carries twice as much runoff as the Diamantina and three times as much as the Georgina, over the past ten thousand years it has reached Lake Eyre much less frequently than those rivers. This is due to the fact that much more water is absorbed along its course than with the Diamantina or Georgina, but could possibly be also because centennial or multicentennial wet and dry cycles in those basins causing them to regularly reach the lake during wet periods (there is some evidence from terraces around Lake Eyre than this occurred during the Medieval Warm Period). Capital Adelaide Government Constitutional monarchy Governor Marjorie Jackson-Nelson Premier Mike Rann (ALP) Federal representation  - House seats 11  - Senate seats 12 Gross State Product (2004-05)  - Product ($m)  $59,819 (5th)  - Product per capita  $38,838/person (7th) Population (End of September 2006)  - Population  1,558,200 (5th)  - Density  1. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Channel Country of Queensland, Australia, is located in the remote south west of the state. ... The Diamantina River is a river in Queensland, Australia. ... The Georgina River is the north-westernmost of the three major rivers of the Channel Country in western Queensland that flow in extremely wet years into Lake Eyre. ... The Medieval Warm Period (MWP) or Medieval Climate Optimum theorizes that there was a time of unusually warm climate in the North Atlantic region, lasting from about the tenth century to about the fourteenth century. ...

Most of the basin of the Cooper is used for sheep and cattle grazing on natural grasslands: although the extreme east of the basin is relatively wet on paper with averages of over 500mm (20 inches) at Blackall, the rainfall is much too erratic for cropping. The soils are mainly Vertisols or Vertic Torrifluvents are quite fertile, though generally heavy in texture with a strong tendency to crack due to the erratic rainfall. Species See text. ... cow and ox, see Cow (disambiguation) and Ox (disambiguation). ... Blackall is a small town located in Western Queensland, Australia, approximately 1100 kilometres by road from the state capital, Brisbane. ...

It was along Cooper Creek that the explorers Burke and Wills met their deaths. Robert OHara Burke by William Strutt William John Wills In 1860-61 Robert OHara Burke and William John Wills led an expedition of 19 men with the intention of crossing Australia from Melbourne in the south to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north, a distance of around...

References

• Australian Society for Limnology
• Primary Industries and Resourses SA - Cooper and Diamantina
• Bureau of Meteorology
• FLoods of Lake Eyre
• Gerald Nanson Channel Country
• Department of the Environment and Heritage
• Murgatroyd, Sarah. The Dig Tree: The Story of Burke and Wills. Melbourne: Text Publishing. ISBN 1-877008-08-7. 

external Links

• Aerial Video of the Cooper Creek at Innamincka