The Delatite River, an inland
perennial river of the
Goulburn Broken catchment, part of the
Murray-Darling basin, is located in the lower
South Eastern Highlands
The South Eastern Highlands is an interim Australian bioregion in eastern Australia, that spans parts of the states and territories of New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, and Victoria. The bioregion comprises and is approxi ...
bioregion
A bioregion is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a biogeographic realm, but larger than an ecoregion or an ecosystem, in the World Wide Fund for Nature classification scheme. There is also an attempt to use the ...
and
Northern Country/North Central regions of the
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
n state of
Victoria. The headwaters of the Delatite River rise on the western slopes of the
Victorian Alps and descend to flow into the Goulburn River within
Lake Eildon
The Eildon Dam or Eildon Weir, a rock and earth-fill embankment dam with a controlled spillway across the Goulburn River, is located between the regional towns of and within Lake Eildon National Park, in the Alpine region of Victoria, Aust ...
.
Location and features
The Delatite River rises in Howqua Gap, between the ski resort mountains of
Mount Stirling and
Mount Buller
Mount Buller is primarily a resort town on the slopes of Mount Buller in the Shire of Mansfield of the Australian state of Victoria. It is located approximately northeast of Melbourne. It is popular with snowsports enthusiasts in winter du ...
, of 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 ...
. The river flows generally westwards, initially through rugged national park and state forests and, as the river descends, through more open woodlands. The river is joined by nine tributaries, passing north of the town of before reaching its
confluence
In geography, a confluence (also: ''conflux'') occurs where two or more flowing bodies of water join to form a single channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main stem); o ...
in Lake Eildon, an impoundment formed on the Goulburn and Delatite rivers, just east of . 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 ...
.
[
]
Etymology
In Australian Aboriginal languages
The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...
, the river is variously named ''Wappang'', ''Callathera'', ''Kalylatherer'' or ''Kay-lath-er-rer'', ''Pappang'', and ''Wapping'' with no defined meanings for each of the words.[
The name of the river is derived from the name of the wife of a former local indigenous leader ''Beolite'', the leader of the yowung-illum-baluks of the Taungurung people, in the ]Taungurung language
The Taungurung people, also spelt ''Daung Wurrung'', are an Aboriginal people who are one of the Kulin nations in present-day Victoria, Australia. They consist of nine clans whose traditional language is the Taungurung language.
Their Country ...
.
See also
* List of rivers of Victoria
References
External links
*
Rivers of Victoria (Australia)
Goulburn Broken catchment
Rivers of Hume (region)
Tributaries of the Goulburn River
Alpine National Park
Victorian Alps
{{VictoriaAU-river-stub