Mitchell River (Queensland)
| Mitchell | |
|---|---|
View inland, up the Mitchell River, at small waterfalls in between Dunbar and Koolatah stations | |
Location of Mitchell River mouth in Queensland | |
| Etymology | In honour of Sir Thomas Mitchell |
| Location | |
| Country | Australia |
| State | Queensland |
| Region | Far North Queensland |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | Atherton Tableland, Great Dividing Range |
| • location | west of Kuranda |
| • coordinates | 16°46′42″S 145°18′11″E / 16.77833°S 145.30306°E |
| • elevation | 376 m (1,234 ft) |
| Mouth | Gulf of Carpentaria |
• location | north of Kowanyama |
• coordinates | 15°11′47″S 141°35′04″E / 15.19639°S 141.58444°E |
• elevation | 0 m (0 ft) |
| Length | 750 km (470 mi) |
| Basin size | 71,757 km2 (27,706 sq mi) to 73,230 km2 (28,270 sq mi) |
| Discharge | |
| • location | Mitchell River Delta, Gulf of Carpentaria |
| • average | (Period: 1890-2015)15,570 GL/a (493 m3/s) to 22,951,000 ML/a (727.3 m3/s) |
| Basin features | |
| Tributaries | |
| • left | Hodgkinson River, Dry River (Queensland), Walsh River, Lynd River |
| • right | McLeod River (Queensland), St George River (Queensland), Little Mitchell River, Palmer River (Queensland), Alice River |
| National parks | Hann Tableland National Park; Mitchell-Alice Rivers National Park; Chillagoe-Mungana Caves National Park; Bulleringa National Park; Forty Mile Scrub National Park |
The Mitchell River is a river in Far North Queensland, Australia. The river rises on the Atherton Tableland about 50 kilometres (31 mi) northwest of Cairns and flows about 750 kilometres (470 mi) northwest across Cape York Peninsula from Mareeba to the Gulf of Carpentaria.
The river's watershed covers an area of 71,757 km2 (27,706 sq mi). The Mitchell has the state's largest discharge, at 11.3 million megalitres (2.5×1012 imp gal; 3.0×1012 US gal) annually, but is intermittent and may be dry for part of the year. Lake Mitchell is the main water storage facility on the river.
It was named by Ludwig Leichhardt on 16 June 1845 after Sir Thomas Mitchell while he was on his overland expedition from Moreton Bay to Port Essington. It may have been previously named the Vereenighde River in 1623 by Dutch merchant and navigator Jan Carstensz.