The Pioneer River is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

located in

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

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 ...

. The long river flows through the city of .

History

Captain John Mackay and his party were the first Europeans to discover the river in 1860. Mackay named it Mackay River after his father, George Mackay of Uralla in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. However, when

George Bowen Sir George Ferguson Bowen (; 2 November 1821 – 21 February 1899), was an Irish author and colonial administrator whose appointments included postings to the Ionian Islands, Queensland, New Zealand, Victoria, Mauritius and Hong Kong.R. B. Joy ...

, the

Governor of Queensland The governor of Queensland is the representative in the state of Queensland of the monarch of Australia. In an analogous way to the governor-general of Australia at the national level, the governor Governors of the Australian states, performs c ...

, visited on in October 1862, the name was changed to Pioneer River.

Location and features

The river rises in the Pinnacle Ranges below Mount McBryde near

Pinevale, Queensland Pinevale is a rural locality in the Mackay Region, Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = A ...

, southwest of Mackay. The river flows in a northerly direction into the Pioneer Valley. At the river flows to the east before reaching its

mouth In animal anatomy, the mouth, also known as the oral cavity, or in Latin cavum oris, is the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds. It is also the cavity lying at the upper end of the alimentary canal, bounded on ...

and emptying 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 ...

at Mackay. The river is joined by ten

tributaries A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage b ...

including

Cattle Creek, Queensland (North Burnett Region) Cattle Creek is a rural locality Locality may refer to: * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localities (Australia), in whic ...

and Blacks Creek. The river is too shallow for navigation, drying sandbanks encountered only a few kilometres upstream of the river mouth. During king tides the Pioneer River may experience a tidal range of up to . The catchment covers an area of . Upper parts of the catchment are too steep for agriculture and remain covered by rainforests and open woodlands. In 2002, a

Queensland Government The Queensland Government is the democratic administrative authority of the Australian state of Queensland. The Government of Queensland, a parliamentary constitutional monarchy was formed in 1859 as prescribed in its Constitution, as amended fr ...

report found that the local sugar industry had allowed five pesticides to enter the river, exceeding acceptable standards. Mackay Weir Upstream

The river has a number of water storage facilities built along its course including

Teemburra Dam Teemburra Dam was constructed in 1997 for town water storage and irrigation purposes. It is located approximately 50 km west of Mackay, Queensland. It has a surface area of 1,040 hectares, an average depth of 14.2 metres and holds ...

Dumbleton Weir Dumbleton is a village and civil parish in the English county of Gloucestershire. The village is roughly 20 miles from the city of Gloucester. The village is known to have existed in the time of Æthelred I who granted land to Abingdon Abbey, a ...

Mirani Weir Mirani may refer to: Places Australia * Mirani, Queensland ** Electoral district of Mirani ** Shire of Mirani Oman * Fort Al-Mirani, a fort in the harbour of the city of Old Muscat Pakistan * Mirani, Balochistan * Mirani, Sindh * Mirani Dam, a ...

and

Marian Weir Marian may refer to: People * Mari people, a Finno-Ugric ethnic group in Russia * Marian (given name), a list of people with the given name * Marian (surname), a list of people so named Places *Marian, Iran (disambiguation) * Marian, Queensland ...

. It is crossed by the Bruce Highway and the North Coast railway line in Mackay. The river is crossed by the Forgan Bridge at Mackay.

Pioneer Valley

The Pioneer Valley is one of Australia's richest sugar cane areas. It runs for about 45 km from Netherdale in the west to Marian in the east. For much of its length it is drained by Cattle Creek, until that creek joins the Pioneer River near Benholme. The valley contains important sugar mills and contained linked railway lines as far west as

Pinnacle A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was mainly ...

. In September 2022, the

Queensland State Government The Queensland Government is the democratic administrative authority of the Australian state of Queensland. The Government of Queensland, a parliamentary constitutional monarchy was formed in 1859 as prescribed in its Constitution, as amended fr ...

's Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, announced a proposed

pumped-storage hydroelectricity Pumped-storage hydroelectricity (PSH), or pumped hydroelectric energy storage (PHES), is a type of hydroelectric energy storage used by electric power systems for load balancing. The method stores energy in the form of gravitational potential ...

scheme that will involve flooding some land of the valley.

Flooding

The river is prone to flooding, most recently in February 2008 when a height of just over (classed as moderate flooding according to the Bureau of Meteorology) was recorded at a gauge in the centre of Mackay. This height was reached after extremely heavy rain fell over Mackay ( in 6 hours). After the devastating Mackay cyclone of 21 January 1918, the river was flooded for weeks. The Pioneer has reached major flood levels on twenty occasions since records first began in 1884, with the highest reaching in 1958.

References

External links