Dalyup River is a river located in the
Goldfields-Esperance region of
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
.
When Surveyor General
John Septimus Roe
John Septimus Roe (8 May 1797 – 28 May 1878) was the first Surveyor-General of Western Australia. He was a renowned explorer, a member of Western Australia's legislative and executive councils for nearly 40 years, but also a participant in ...
visited the river in 1848, he named it the Gore River, after one of Captain
James Cook's crew from the ''
Endeavour'', Lieutenant
John Gore.
The river was charted for the first time as the Dalyup River in 1875.
The name ''Dalyup'' is the
Nyungar
The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the so ...
word for the
king parrot.
The river rises west of Scaddan and flows south into Lake Gore.
The main tributary of the river is the West Dalyup River. Both rivers were formed 30 million years ago in the
Oligocene Period resulting from the formation of the Ravensthorpe ramp.
The river is an
ephemeral
Ephemerality (from the Greek word , meaning 'lasting only one day') is the concept of things being transitory, existing only briefly. Academically, the term ephemeral constitutionally describes a diverse assortment of things and experiences, fr ...
system that mainly flows as a result of winter rains. It is the primary source of water for Lake Gore.
The catchment area of the river has only 10% of the natural vegetation remaining, the rest has been cleared for agricultural purposes such as winter cropping or livestock production.
References
Rivers of the Goldfields-Esperance region
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