The Alice River in central

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

rises on the western slopes of the

Great Dividing Range The Great Dividing Range, also known as the East Australian Cordillera or the Eastern Highlands, is a cordillera system in eastern Australia consisting of an expansive collection of mountain ranges, plateaus and rolling hills, that runs rough ...

. The river bisects the

Shire of Barcaldine The Shire of Barcaldine was a local government area located in central Queensland and headquartered in the town of Barcaldine. It covered an area of , and existed as a local government entity from 1892 until 2008, when it amalgamated with the ...

, flowing in a south-westerly direction towards

Isisford Isisford is a rural town and locality in the Longreach Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Isisford had a population of 218 people. Geography The locality is in Central Western Queensland. The town of Isisford is in the no ...

and its confluence with the

Barcoo River The Barcoo River in western Queensland, Australia rises on the northern slopes of the Warrego Range, flows in a south-westerly direction and unites with the Thomson River to form Cooper Creek. The first European to see the river was Thomas M ...

. The town of Barcaldine is located on the Alice River. The Alice River's tributaries include Jordan Creek and Lagoon Creek. The Alice River is often dry, except after the annual summer rains. The Barcoo River forms the boundary of

outback Australia The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a ...

with little in the way of civilization west of the Barcoo. Waters from the Barcoo and Alice Rivers flow towards

Lake Eyre Lake Eyre ( ), officially known as Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, is an endorheic lake in east-central Far North South Australia, some north of Adelaide. The shallow lake is the depocentre of the vast endorheic Lake Eyre basin, and contains the ...

Central Australia Central Australia, also sometimes referred to as the Red Centre, is an inexactly defined region associated with the geographic centre of Australia. In its narrowest sense it describes a region that is limited to the town of Alice Springs and i ...

, while rivers further east join the Murray-Darling basin and reach the sea in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

History

The

traditional owners Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have rights ...

of the area are the

Iningai The Iningai (Yiningayi) were an indigenous Australian people of the present-day Longreach Region in the state of Queensland. Country The Iningai lay to the west of the Great Dividing Range as far as the Forsyth Range, Maneroo Creek, and Longreac ...

people.

(also known as Yiningay, Muttaburra, Tateburra, Yinangay, Yinangi) is an

Australian Aboriginal language The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...

spoken by the Iningai people. The Iningai language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of the

Longreach Region The Longreach Region is a local government area in Central West Queensland, Australia. Established in 2008, it superseded three previous local government areas that had existed for more than a century. It has an estimated operating budget of ...

and

Barcaldine Region The Barcaldine Region is a local government area in Central West Queensland, Australia. Established in 2008, it was preceded by three previous local government areas which had existed for over a century. It has an estimated operating budget of ...

, particularly the towns of

Longreach Longreach is a town and a locality in the Longreach Region, Queensland, Australia. It is the administrative centre of the Longreach Regional Council, which was established in 2008 as a merger of the former Longreach, Ilfracombe, and Isisford s ...

, Barcaldine,

Muttaburra Muttaburra is an outback town and locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia. Muttaburra was the discovery site of the ''Muttaburrasaurus'', one of Australia's most famous dinosaurs. Geography Muttaburra is in the central west ...

and Aramac as well as the properties of Bowen Downs and catchments of Cornish Creek and Alice River. In 1846, Thomas Mitchell became the first European to see the Barcoo and Alice Rivers. The Alice River was named by Mitchell and Mitchell's name was adopted for the pastoral district and for its grass, Mitchell grass. In October 1863, Donald Cameron, his son John, together with James and William Crombie walked sheep from the

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

district of New South Wales and grazed them along a 40-mile frontage of the Alice River. They named their property Barcaldine after a family farm in Scotland. In 1891 the Alice River had a record flood that stopped traffic for a week. On 20 March 1910 the Alice River flooded all the low-lying country and the railway line was blocked.

References

{{Rivers of Queensland Rivers of Queensland Central West Queensland

History

See also

References