The Barratta Creek is a

creek A creek in North America and elsewhere, such as Australia, is a stream that is usually smaller than a river. In the British Isles it is a small tidal inlet. Creek may also refer to: People * Creek people, also known as Muscogee, Native Americans ...

North Queensland North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its tropical northern part has been ...

, Australia. The headwaters of the creek rise below Bunkers Hill in the

Leichhardt Range The Leichhardt Range, part of the Great Dividing Range, is a mountain range located in North Queensland, Australia. The range runs parallel with the coast about west of Mackay and has an average elevation of . It is composed of a series of rugg ...

in 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 ...

and flow in a north easterly direction. The creek continues through mostly uninhabited country past Woodhouse Mountain travelling almost parallel with the

Haughton River The Haughton River is a river located in North Queensland, Australia. Course and features The headwaters of the river rise in the Haughton Valley of the Leichhardt Range near Mingela and flow in a north easterly direction almost immediately cro ...

eventually crossing the Bruce Highway and entering the Bowling Green Bay Conservation Park then discharging into Bowling Green Bay near Jerona, before flowing into the

Coral Sea The Coral Sea () is a marginal sea of the South Pacific off the northeast coast of Australia, and classified as an interim Australian bioregion. The Coral Sea extends down the Australian northeast coast. Most of it is protected by the Fre ...

. The river descends over its

course Course may refer to: Directions or navigation * Course (navigation), the path of travel * Course (orienteering), a series of control points visited by orienteers during a competition, marked with red/white flags in the terrain, and corresponding ...

. The catchment area of the creek occupies an of which an area of is composed of

estuarine An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

wetlands. The mean annual flow of the creek is . The riparian habitat of the catchment, particularly the northern end, has declined since the 1970s as a result of clearing of the floodplain forest to plant

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with ...

. Most of the catchment area is still used for

pastoralism Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry where domesticated animals (known as "livestock") are released onto large vegetated outdoor lands (pastures) for grazing, historically by nomadic people who moved around with their herds. The animal ...

, particularly grazing land for cattle. The name of the creek is thought to be derived from the local

Aboriginal Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...

dialect from the name for a chain of

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') a ...

s found in the area.

References

{{Rivers of Queensland Rivers of Queensland North Queensland Bodies of water of the Coral Sea

See also

References