Blackmore River flows into
Darwin Harbour
Darwin Harbour is the body of water close to Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia. It opens to the north at a line from Charles Point in the west to Lee Point in the east into the Beagle Gulf and connects via the Clarence Strait wi ...
close to
Darwin in 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 ...
of
Australia.
[N Smit, R Billyard and L Ferns: ]
Beagle Gulf Benthic Survey: Characterisation of soft substrates.
'' Technical Report No. 66 (2000), Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory __NOTOC__
Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory (also known as the ''Parks and Wildlife Division'' in some sources) is the Northern Territory Government agency responsible for tasks including the establishment of "parks, reserv ...
.
Course
The headwaters of the river rise at an elevation of on the Wild Horse Plain and flow northwards past Tumbling Waters and through the
Blackmore River Conservation Reserve
Blackmore River Conservation Reserve is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia.
It is located approximately south of Darwin and lies along a stretch of the Blackmore River from which it takes its name.
The threatened plant ...
. The river discharges into Darwin Harbour.
The
Elizabeth River and Blackmore River catchments together occupy an area of , with the Blackmore catchment occupying .
The
estuary
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 environm ...
formed at the river mouth is tidal in nature and in near pristine condition.
Climate
The climate of the Blackmore River region is monsoon tropical with two distinct seasons: the Dry and the Wet. The Dry lasts for 6 months between April and September with an average rainfall of 24 mm, whereas the Wet lasts between October and March with an average monthly rainfall of 254 mm/month (according to the Bureau of Meteorology, 1999). The majority of the rain falls between December and April. Runoff varies between 250–1000 mm.
Peak flow for the Blackmore River occurs in February with 605Ml/day, after which it slowly decreases until July when there is no freshwater input into Darwin Harbour until the onset of the following wet season (Padovan 1997).
Cyclone frequency is low to moderate.
Water quality
The water quality at the upper estuary and freshwater monitoring sites of the Department of Land Resource Management of the Northern Territory Government was 2011 in moderate condition.
Blackmore River and Estuary
Geology
The underlying lithology is dominated by Permian siltstones and sandstones.
See also
* List of rivers of Northern Territory
References
{{Rivers of the Northern Territory , state=collapsed
Rivers of the Northern Territory