The Jackey Jackey Creek, also often called Jacky Jacky Creek, is a
creek in 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: Agrupació ...
region of
Far North Queensland,
Australia.
Course
The headwaters of the river rise in the
Great Dividing Range and flow in a north easterly direction along the northern border of the
Apudthama National Park
The Apudthama National Park (formerly Jardine River National Park) is a national park in Queensland, Australia, northwest of Brisbane and about northwest of Cairns, on the tip of Cape York Peninsula.
The park and reserves encompass the traditi ...
. The creek eventually discharges into Kennedy Inlet then Newcastle Bay and onto the
Torres Strait
The Torres Strait (), also known as Zenadh Kes, is a strait between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost extremity of the Australian mai ...
.
Catchment
The creek's catchment occupies and area of , of which an area of is made up of
estuarine wetlands. The area is composed of a variety of habitat and contains great ecological diversity. The southern end of the catchment holds the white
silica
Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , most commonly found in nature as quartz and in various living organisms. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is ...
sand dunes of the Shelburne Bay area with perched freshwater lakes.
Savannah woodlands are found at the western side of the catchment, with the Escape River-Kennedy Inlet system, the site of Australia's largest mangrove forest as well as Queensland’s biggest pearl oyster site found to the north.
The only
tributary
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 drai ...
of the creek is Spear Creek, which joins shortly before reaching Kennedy Inlet.
[
The hilly areas at the tip of Cape York are made up of Carboniferous volcanic rocks, while further south the geology is Jurassic-Cretaceous ]sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...
. The lower lying country of the Apudthama National Park is made up of Cainozoic
The Cenozoic ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterised by the dominance of mammals, birds and flowering plants, a cooling and drying climate, and the current configura ...
sands and gravels.
A total of 31 species of fish are found in the creek, including the glassfish, Pacific short-finned eel, kabuna hardyhead, treadfin silver biddy, mouth almighty, concave goby, coal grunter, barramundi
The barramundi (''Lates calcarifer'') or Asian sea bass, is a species of catadromous fish in the family Latidae of the order Perciformes. The species is widely distributed in the Indo-West Pacific, spanning the waters of the Middle East, Sout ...
, oxeye herring, mangrove jack, eastern rainbowfish, Obbe's catfish, spotted blue-eye and gulf saratoga.
History
The traditional owners
Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have right ...
of the area are the Unjadi and Ankamuti
The Ankamuti were an indigenous Australian people of the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland.
Language
The Ankamuti spoke one of the Uradhi dialects.
Country
Ankamuti territory, according to Norman Tindale, extended over some around the western ...
peoples, who have lived in the area for thousands of years.
The creek is named for the Aboriginal guide, Jackey Jackey
Jackey Jackey (also spelled Jacky Jacky) (1833–1854) is the name by which Galmahra (a.k.a. Galmarra), the Aboriginal Australian guide and companion to surveyor Edmund Kennedy was known. He survived Edmund Kennedy's fatal 1848 expedition int ...
, who acted as a guide for Edmund Kennedy
Edmund Besley Court Kennedy J. P. (5 September 1818 – December 1848) was an explorer in Australia in the mid nineteenth century. He was the Assistant-Surveyor of New South Wales, working with Sir Thomas Mitchell. Kennedy explored the interio ...
during his 1848 expedition through the Cape York area.
See also
*
References
{{Rivers of Queensland
Rivers of Far North Queensland
Bodies of water of the Coral Sea
Queensland in World War II