River
Darling River
1,472 km from source to mouth · Australia.
AustraliaFlows into Murray River3rd longest in Australia
In numbers
Length
1,472km
Average flow
100m³/s
Basin
710,000km²
Drop
124m
from 158 m to 34 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
1,472 km of river and 8 stops on the way: 0 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 158 m
- 397 kmCulgoa Rivertributary
- 397 kmBogan Rivertributary
- 411 kmBarwon Rivertributary
- 549 kmWarrego Rivertributary
- 1,025 kmLake Wetherell0.8 km²
- 1,025 kmTandure Lake20 km²
- 1,027 kmPamamaroo Lake66 km²
- 1,044 kmLake Menindee151 km²
- 1,472 kmMurray Riverat 34 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in New South Wales, Australia
At the mouth it carries 100 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 25 seconds. It drops from 158 m to 34 m, 0.1 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 710,000 km², about the size of MM. 1.9 million people live in it. Highest water: from April to May and from July to August. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 190% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- WentworthLargest city on its banks · 1,485 people
- Mildura Airport (MQL)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 21 km from the cityCar hire at MQL airport (Mildura)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water13 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From April to May and from September to NovemberThe best months to visit
Darling River, month by month
Highest water: from April to May and from July to August
Best months to visit: from April to May and from September to November.
From about 160 m³/s in the lowest month to 740 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Darling River: the basin in numbers
745,368 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 1.9millionpeople live in the basin
- 3/km²people per km²
- 320maverage altitude of the basin
- 576mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 17.4°Caverage air temperature
- 5%protected areas
- 0.3%covered by lakes
- 23km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 18% Forest
- 13% Cropland
- 55% Pasture
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Darling River: what you find on the way
- 18WeirsBanarway Weir, Walgett Weir, Brewarrina Weir and 15 more
- 13Boat rampsBoat Ramp and 12 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.9 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Darling River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
4lakes on its wayLakeyas
1mountain at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (4)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Lake Wetherellkm 1,0180.8km²
- Tandure Lakekm 1,01820km²
- Pamamaroo Lakekm 1,02066km²
- Lake Menindeekm 1,036151km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (1)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Quartpot Sandhill10 km away
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Darling River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Murray RiverAustralia2,530 km770 m³/sTributaries (7)
Also: Warrego River, Bogan River, Barwon River, Paroo River, Culgoa River, Frenchmans Creek, Mulga Creek
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q181482) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Lakeyas, Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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