savanna
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland- grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground ...
grassland surrounding the
Gulf of Carpentaria
The Gulf of Carpentaria (, ) is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea (the body of water that lies between Australia and New Guinea). The northern boundary i ...
in north western
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
, establishe ...
and eastern
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...
on the north coast of Australia. The region is also called the Gulf Savannah. It contains large reserves of zinc, lead and silver. The Gulf Country is crossed by the Savannah Way highway.
Location and description
The Gulf Country is a block of dry savanna between the wetter areas of Arnhem Land and the
Top End
The Top End of Australia's Northern Territory is a geographical region encompassing the northernmost section of the Northern Territory, which aside from the Cape York Peninsula is the northernmost part of the Australian continent. It covers a ra ...
of the Northern territory to the west and the
Cape York Peninsula
Cape York Peninsula is a large peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest unspoiled wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth’s last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupación ...
of Far North Queensland to the east, while to the south and east lie upland plains of Mitchell grasses and the Einasleigh Uplands. The Northern Territory side of the area is the Gulf Fall area of sandstone slopes and gorges draining the interior uplands into the gulf. The main land uses in the Gulf Country are beef cattle and mining.
The region covers an area of . The landscape is generally flat and low-lying tropical savannah cut through with rivers that carry the monsoon rains to the gulf and feed coastal mudflats and patches of rainforest. The Sir Edward Pellew Group of Islands and the Wellesley Islands lie off the gulf coast.
The main settlements in the region include the city of Mount Isa and the towns of Doomadgee, Cloncurry, Camooweal, Kowanyama, Karumba, Normanton and Burketown. The port at Karumba is one of Australia's main live cattle exporting ports. The oldest building in the region is the Burketown Hotel.
Climate
The climate is hot with a dry season and a monsoon. The dry season lasts from about April until November and is characterized by very dry southeast to east winds, generated by migratory winter high pressure systems to the south. The wet season lasts from December to March and is characterised by humid northerly monsoonal airflows. This wet season can be very erratic: at Burketown, which is typical of the region, the rainfall of various wet seasons has ranged from as little as to as much as . Overall rainfall is low (from 750 mm on the coast to 500 mm inland) but if the wet season is at all strong, low-lying areas are flooded and even the few sealed roads are cut. The Gulf is also a breeding ground for
cyclone
In meteorology, a cyclone () is a large air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure, counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from above (opposite to an an ...
s during the period between November and April.
In September and October the Morning Glory Cloud appears in the Southern Gulf. The best vantage point to see this phenomenon is in the Burketown area shortly after dawn.
Caledonia
Caledonia (; ) was the Latin name used by the Roman Empire to refer to the part of Great Britain () that lies north of the River Forth, which includes most of the land area of Scotland. Today, it is used as a romantic or poetic name for all ...
,
Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, Californi ...
, Corfield, Winton, Torrens, Tower Hill, Landsborough Creek, Lammermoor Station, Hughenden, and Tangorin.
'' Waanyi'' (also known as ''Wanyi'', ''Wanyee'', ''Wanee'', ''Waangyee'', ''Wonyee'', ''Garawa'', and ''Wanji)'' is an Australian Aboriginal language of the Gulf Country. The language region includes the western parts of Lawn Hill Creek and Nicholson River, from about the boundary between the
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...
Kynuna
Kynuna is an outback town in the Shire of McKinlay and a locality split between the Shire of McKinlay and the Shire of Winton in Queensland, Australia. In the the locality of Kynuna had a population of 55 people.
Geography
Kynuna is on the ba ...
and
Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, Californi ...
Jan Carstenszoon
Jan Carstenszoon or more commonly Jan Carstensz In Dutch patronyms ending in -szoon were almost universally abbreviated to -sz was a 17th-century Dutch explorer. In 1623, Carstenszoon was commissioned by the Dutch East India Company to lead an ...
Ludwig Leichhardt
Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt (), known as Ludwig Leichhardt, (23 October 1813 – c. 1848) was a German explorer and naturalist, most famous for his exploration of northern and central Australia.Ken Eastwood,'Cold case: Leichhardt's dis ...
who traversed the area in 1844 and 1845. He was followed by Augustus Gregory of the North Australian Expedition in 1856, and then Burke and Wills in 1861.
John McKinlay
John McKinlay (26 August 1819 – 31 December 1872) ,
William Landsborough
William Landsborough (21 February 1825 – 16 March 1886) was an explorer of Australia and notably he was the first explorer to complete a North-to-South crossing of Australia. He was a member of the Queensland Legislative Council.
Early ...
lead separate search parties into the Gulf looking for Burke and Wills in 1861 and 1862.
As pastoralists settled in the area there were significant clashes with local aboriginal populations. Historian Tony Roberts has described the nature of massacres and violent encounters in the Gulf Country in his book titled ''Frontier Justice''.
The 1964 Mount Isa Mines Strike was a prolonged strike between miners and management at Mount Isa Mines.
Mining
The region is source of great mineral wealth such as copper, zinc, lead and silver. Mount Isa Mines includes a number of copper, lead, zinc and silver mines in Mount Isa where production began in 1931. Century Mine, Australia's largest zinc mine began operations near Mount Isa in 1997 and is expected to be exhausted by 2016. Other mines in the region include George Fisher mine, Cannington Mine and Hilton Mine.
Environmental concerns
Due to the
lead
Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cut, ...
production in the town, Mount Isa has one of the most intensive air quality monitoring systems in Australia. Concerns have been raised over childhood
lead contamination
Lead poisoning, also known as plumbism and saturnism, is a type of metal poisoning caused by lead in the body. The brain is the most sensitive. Symptoms may include abdominal pain, constipation, headaches, irritability, memory problems, infer ...
and air pollution within the region.
Ecology
Flora
In the Gulf Country there are no mountains to restrict rainfall to the coastal band and the transition from the coastal mangroves through
Acacia stenophylla
''Acacia stenophylla'' is a species of Acacia commonly referred to as the shoestring acacia. It is an evergreen tree in the family Fabaceae native to Australia. It is not considered rare or endangered.
Description
''Acacia stenophylla'' varies i ...
woodlands to the arid scrubs of central Australia is gradual. There are up to nineteen important areas for bird migration in rivermouths along the gulf coast including the Gregory River- Nicholson River estuary and the Roper River in
Limmen Bight
Limmen Bight is a bight, or large, open bay, located in the Northern Territory of Australia at the western end of the Gulf of Carpentaria about east of the town of Katherine. It is part of the traditional lands and waters of the Marra peo ...
. The patches of rainforest habitat occur in parts that are less vulnerable to the grassland fires. On the savanna dicanthium bluegrass grows tall after the monsoon rains as the Gulf Country is one of the largest areas of native grassland in Australia. The sandstone gorges of the Gulf Fall are home to a specific wildlife. Finally the Pellew Islands have retained original mangroves and thick woodland..
Fauna
The area is home to a number of endangered species including an endemic rodent, the Carpentarian rock rat ''(Zyzomys palatalis)'' and endemic reptiles such as the Carpentarian leristaskink . The mudflats and saltpans on the coast are home to waterbirds such as the magpie goose. One endemic grassland bird the
Carpentarian grasswren
The Carpentarian grasswren (''Amytornis dorotheae'') is a species of bird in the family Maluridae.
It is endemic to Australia.
Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry shrubland
Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, an ...
is suffering as changing fire regimes (the way grasses are systematically burnt and allowed to renew) are reducing their habitat.
Threats and preservation
Much of the area is unspoilt vegetation but overgrazing of cattle and the introduction of feed grass species is changing both grasslands and wetlands while the woodlands are vulnerable to changing fire regimes. Introduced weeds include the
rubber vine
''Cryptostegia grandiflora'', commonly known as rubber vine, is a woody-Perennial plant, perennial vine that is native to south-west Madagascar. It is also a significant weed in northern Australia, sometimes regarded as the worst weed in all of A ...
. Protected areas include
Staaten River National Park
The Staaten River National Park is a national park in Queensland, Australia, 1,640 km northwest of Brisbane. It receives its name from the Staaten River which flows through the park.
Environment
The park encompasses an extensive section of ...
Mitchell-Alice Rivers National Park
Errk Oykangand (formerly known as Mitchell-Alice Rivers until 2009) is a national park in Queensland, Australia, 1748 km northwest of Brisbane
Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, ...
on the Queensland side. However the coastal wetlands are little protected.
Lawn Hill crater
Lawn Hill ‘crater’ refers to an Ordovician impact structure, the eroded remnant of a former impact crater, situated approximately 220 km north-north-west of Mount Isa in northwestern Queensland, Australia. The site is marked by an 18  ...
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...
Wilton River
The Wilton River is a large perennial river, and tributary of the Roper River located in the Katherine region of the Northern Territory, Australia.
It flows into the Roper River at Roper Bar, Northern Territory and the traditional owners of the R ...