The Lake Eyre basin ( ) is a

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

that covers just under one-sixth of all

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 ...

. It is the largest

endorheic basin An endorheic basin (; also spelled endoreic basin or endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water, such as rivers or oceans, but drainage converges instead into lakes ...

in Australia and amongst the largest in the world, covering about , including much of inland

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 ...

, large portions of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest o ...

and 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 ...

, and a part of western

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 ...

. The basin is also one of the largest, least-developed arid zone basins with a high degree of variability anywhere. It supports only about 60,000 people and has no major irrigation, diversions or flood-plain developments. Low density grazing that sustains a large amount of

wildlife Wildlife refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous to game: those birds and mammals that were hunted ...

is the major land use, occupying 82% of the total land within the basin. The Lake Eyre basin of precipitation (rain water) to a great extent geographically overlaps the

Great Artesian Basin The Great Artesian Basin (GAB), located in Australia, is the largest and deepest artesian basin in the world, stretching over , with measured water temperatures ranging from . The basin provides the only source of fresh water through much of ...

underneath. The basin began as a sinking

landmass A landmass, or land mass, is a large region or area of land. The term is often used to refer to lands surrounded by an ocean or sea, such as a continent or a large island. In the field of geology, a landmass is a defined section of continen ...

mostly covered by forest and contained many more lakes than now. The climate has changed from wet to arid over the last 60 million years. Most of the rivers in the Lake Eyre basin are now slow flowing, flat and completely dry for lengthy periods. When the country north of the basin floods, floodwaters drain via the main rivers of the basin,

Cooper Creek The Cooper Creek (formerly Cooper's Creek) is a river in the Australian states of Queensland and South Australia. It was the site of the death of the explorers Burke and Wills in 1861. It is sometimes known as the Barcoo River from one of its ...

Georgina River The Georgina River is the north-westernmost of the three major rivers of the Channel Country in Central West Queensland, that also flows through a portion of the Northern Territory, in central Australia. Part of the Lake Eyre basin, the Geor ...

and

Diamantina River The Diamantina River is a major river located in Central West Queensland and the far north of South Australia. The river was named by William Landsborough in 1866 for Lady Diamantina Bowen (née Roma), wife of Sir George Bowen, the first Gover ...

southwards towards Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre, the country's lowest point at below sea level. The water overflows the river banks, across the

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

s, filling waterholes and

wetlands A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...

and carving new channels, giving rise to the name Channel Country. Most of the rain which falls in the north never reaches the lake 1,000 km away, which only fills occasionally. Management of the area has been problematic as it is covered by four different states'

jurisdictions Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels. Ju ...

. As the

ecological Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

significance of the basin has become known and mismanagement of another Australian basin, the Murray-Darling Basin, became apparent during several drought cycles, it became clear that ongoing management issues had to be resolved. In 2001 the Lake Eyre Basin Intergovernmental Agreement was signed, which was set up to ensure the sustainability of the Lake Eyre Basin river systems. In 2014, the

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 f ...

changed the laws protecting the rivers and floodplains. there are fears that mining for

coal seam gas Coalbed methane (CBM or coal-bed methane), coalbed gas, coal seam gas (CSG), or coal-mine methane (CMM) is a form of natural gas extracted from coal beds. In recent decades it has become an important source of energy in United States, Canada, Au ...

could be very detrimental to the fragile environment of the floodplains.

Geology

The basin began to form in the early

Paleogene The Paleogene ( ; also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary or Early Tertiary) is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning o ...

(about 60 million years ago) when south-eastern South Australia started to sink and rivers began to deposit

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand ...

into the large, shallow basin. A remnant of an old oceanic plate is currently sinking in the mantle beneath the basin. The suction effect of this sinking likely caused both the Lake Eyre Basin as well as the Murray-Darling basin to form. The basin is still gradually sinking, and still gradually accumulating sediment. For many millions of years, the Lake Eyre Basin was well supplied with water and largely

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

ed. About 20 million years ago, large shallow lakes formed, covering much of the area for about 10 million years. From that time on, as Australia drifted further north and the climate became gradually more arid, the lakes and floodplains started to dry. Only in the last 2.6 million years did the onset of the

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...

s bring about the present climatic regime and the consequent fairly rapid

desertification Desertification is a type of land degradation in drylands in which biological productivity is lost due to natural processes or induced by human activities whereby fertile areas become increasingly arid. It is the spread of arid areas caused ...

of the area. The basin covers just under one-sixth of all Australia and is the largest

in Australia and amongst the largest in the world, covering about , including much of inland

, large portions of

and the

, and a part of western

Geography

During years of especially high

rainfall Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water f ...

, all the riverbeds in this vast, mostly flat, arid and semi-arid area lead inland (not towards the sea) towards

Lake Eyre Lake Eyre ( ), officially known as Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, is an endorheic lake in east-central Far North South Australia, some north of Adelaide. The shallow lake is the depocentre of the vast endorheic Lake Eyre basin, and contains ...

in central South Australia. Lake Eyre itself lies approximately below

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardis ...

, and usually contains only salt. In flood years, it fills and, for a short time, undergoes a period of rapid growth and fertility: long-dormant marine creatures multiply and large flocks of

waterfowl Anseriformes is an order of birds also known as waterfowl that comprises about 180 living species of birds in three families: Anhimidae (three species of screamers), Anseranatidae (the magpie goose), and Anatidae, the largest family, which ...

arrive to feed and raise their young before the

water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as ...

s evaporate once more. The annual mean runoff in the Lake Eyre Basin is lowest of any of the world's major drainage basins. None of the creeks and rivers in the Lake Eyre Basin are permanent: they flow only after heavy rain – a rare to very rare event in the arid interior of Australia. Average annual rainfall in the area surrounding Lake Eyre is , and the

pan evaporation Pan evaporation is a measurement that combines or integrates the effects of several climate elements: temperature, humidity, rain fall, drought dispersion, solar radiation, and wind. Evaporation is greatest on hot, windy, dry, sunny days; and is g ...

rate is . Annualised average figures are misleading: since 1885 annual rainfall over the of the Lake Eyre Basin has ranged from about in 1928 to over in 1974. Most of the water reaching Lake Eyre comes from the river systems of semi-arid inland Queensland, roughly to the north. To provide a sense of scale, the Lake Eyre Basin is about the size of France, Germany and Italy combined. It is slightly larger than the Murray-Darling basin (which drains inland eastern Australia and is responsible for a large proportion of the continent's agricultural productivity) but has vastly less water. Nevertheless, the entire flow of the Murray-Darling would be insufficient to fill Lake Eyre, merely keeping pace with evaporation. (In contrast, the flow of the

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

could fill Lake Eyre in 22 days, that of the

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

in just three days.) Other lakes in the basin include Lake Frome, Lake Yamma Yamma and Lake Hart. The basin is also one of the largest, least-developed arid zone basins with a high degree of variability anywhere. It supports about 60,000 people and a large amount of

, and has no major irrigation, diversions or flood-plain developments.

Rivers

The

Finke River The Finke River, or ''Larapinta'' (Arrernte), is a river in central Australia, one of four main rivers of the Lake Eyre Basin and thought to be the oldest riverbed in the world. It flows for only a few days a year and when this happens, its wa ...

and

are the four main rivers of the basin. Other desert rivers include the

Hale River The Hale River is a river in the southeast of Australia's Northern Territory. Most of the year, however, it has no water. Geography River course The river rises at The Garden on the north slopes of Mount Laughlen in the MacDonnell Ranges about ...

, Plenty River and

Todd River The Todd River (Arrernte language, Arrernte: ''Lhere Mparntwe'') is an Ephemeral, ephemeral river in the southern Northern Territory, central Australia. The origins of the Todd River are in the MacDonnell Ranges, where it flows past the Alice ...

that flow from the south east of the Northern Territory, south. In the western parts of the basin the

Neales River The Neales River is a watercourse located in the Far North region of the Australian state of South Australia. The river is a tributary of Lake Eyre. The Central Australia Railway, on which The Ghan passenger train operated until 1980, crossed ...

and

Macumba River Macumba River (Arabana: ''Maka-Wimpa''; Arrernte: ''Ura-Ingka''), once known as Treuer River, is an ephemeral freshwater stream in the far north of South Australia, that is part of the Lake Eyre Basin. Course and features The river rises at the ...

flow into Lake Eyre. Rivers within the basin have a low gradient, slow flow rate and a naturally

turbid Turbidity is the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by large numbers of individual particles that are generally invisible to the naked eye, similar to smoke in air. The measurement of turbidity is a key test of water quality. Fluids c ...

water quality. Several of the major Lake Eyre Basin river systems are well-known. Because the Lake Eyre Basin is almost flat, rivers flow slowly and frequently split up into

s or multiple braided channels. Water is lost to evaporation, to seepage, and in the many ephemeral

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (Anoxic waters, anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in t ...

systems, with the result that downstream flows are typically smaller than upstream flows. Only in exceptional years is there sufficient upstream rain to provide a flow into Lake Eyre itself. The

, starting roughly west of

Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' A ...

is thought to be the oldest riverbed in the world and although it flows for only a few days a year (in many years it does not flow at all) is home to seven species of fish, two of which are found nowhere else. The waters of the Finke disappear into the sands of the Simpson Desert and are not definitely known to ever make it as far south as Lake Eyre, although the story is told that this happened once early in the 20th century. In extreme events, water from the Finke River flows into the

, which empties into

, a total distance from headwater streams of around . Major tributaries include Ellery Creek, and the Palmer and Hugh Rivers. The

system originates on the

Barkly Tableland The Barkly Tableland is a rolling plain of grassland in Australia. It runs from the eastern part of the Northern Territory into western Queensland. It is one of the five regions in the Northern Territory and covers , 21% of the Northern Terr ...

, near the Northern Territory-Queensland border, north-west of Mount Isa and not far south of 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 this relatively humid northern area, rainfall can be as high as per year and evaporation as low as . The Georgina flows through innumerable channels leading south through far-western Queensland for over , eventually reaching

Goyder Lagoon __NOTOC__ The Goyder Lagoon is a large ephemeral swamp in the Australian state of South Australia in the state's Far North region. The lake is part of the Diamantina River floodplain, lying beside the Birdsville Track close to the state bord ...

in the north-eastern corner of South Australia. Australia's early

bush poet The bush ballad, bush song or bush poem is a style of poetry and folk music that depicts the life, character and scenery of the Australian bush. The typical bush ballad employs a straightforward rhyme structure to narrate a story, often one of a ...

s immortalised the

, making it a symbol of the remote outback. It too rises in northern Queensland, roughly between Mount Isa and Winton, flowing 800 kilometres south and west through Birdsville and the Channel Country to join the Georgina at Goyder Lagoon (and then, if there is sufficient flow, down

Warburton Creek The Warburton River (or Warburton Creek) is a freshwater stream in the far north of South Australia that flows in a south westerly direction and discharges into the eastern side of Lake Eyre. It is one of the state's largest rivers, and is part ...

towards Lake Eyre). Of all the Lake Eyre Basin river systems, however,

is by far the most famous, in particular because it was along Cooper Creek that the explorers Burke and Wills met their deaths. It rises in the form of two central Queensland rivers, the Thomson between Longreach and

Charters Towers Charters Towers is a rural town in the Charters Towers Region, Queensland, Australia. It is by road south-west from Townsville on the Flinders Highway. During the last quarter of the 19th century, the town boomed as the rich gold deposits unde ...

, and the Barcoo in the area around Barcaldine, about inland from

Rockhampton Rockhampton is a city in the Rockhampton Region of Central Queensland, Australia. The population of Rockhampton in June 2021 was 79,967, Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. making it the fourth-largest city in the state outside of t ...

. Cooper Creek spreads out into a vast area of meandering ephemeral channels, making its way roughly south into the far south-west corner of Queensland before turning due west into South Australia towards Lake Eyre. It takes almost a year for water to reach Lake Eyre from the

headwaters The headwaters of a river or stream is the farthest place in that river or stream from its estuary or downstream confluence with another river, as measured along the course of the river. It is also known as a river's source. Definition The ...

. In most years, none does: it is absorbed into the earth, goes to fill channels and the many permanent

waterhole A waterhole is a depression in the ground in which water can collect, or a more permanent pool in the bed of an ephemeral river. Waterhole or water hole may refer to: * Water hole (radio), an especially quiet region of the electromagnetic spect ...

s, or simply

evaporate Evaporation is a type of vaporization that occurs on the surface of a liquid as it changes into the gas phase. High concentration of the evaporating substance in the surrounding gas significantly slows down evaporation, such as when humi ...

s. Water from Cooper Creek reached Lake Eyre in 1990 and then not again until 2010.

Deserts

The deserts that have formed in the basin, including

Sturt Stony Desert Sturt Stony Desert (previously Sturt's Stony Desert) is an area in the north-east of South Australia, far south western border area of Queensland and the far west of New South Wales. It was named by Charles Sturt in 1844, while he was trying ...

Tirari Desert The Tirari Desert is a desert in the eastern part of the Far North region of South Australia. It stretches 212 km from north to south and 153 km from east to west. Location and description The Tirari Desert features salt lakes and ...

and the Strzelecki Desert, are most probably the southern hemisphere's largest source of airborne dust.

Fauna

A total of 27 individual species of fish are found in Lake Eyre basin, with 13 of them being endemic. The largest fish species is the Macquaria, reaching a maximum weight of about .

Traditional owners

Wangkangurru The Wangkangurru, also written Wongkanguru and Wangkanguru, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Simpson Desert area in the state of South Australia. They also refer to themselves as Nharla. Country Norman Tindale estimated their tribal sw ...

(''also known as ''Arabana/Wangkangurru, Wangganguru, Wanggangurru, Wongkangurru)'' is an

Australian Aboriginal language 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 ...

spoken on Wangkangurru country. It is closely related to

Arabana language Arabana or Arabuna is an Australian Aboriginal language of the Pama–Nyungan family, spoken by the Wongkanguru and Arabana people. The language is in steep decline, with an estimated 250 speakers according to 2004 NILS, to just 21 speakers f ...

. The Wangkangurru language region was traditionally in the South Australian-Queensland border region taking in Birdsville and extending south towards Innamincka and

, including the local government areas of the Shire of Diamantina as well as the Outback Communities Authority of South Australia.

Management

Indigenous Australians have lived with the cycles of the land for thousands of years and

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 ...

are protective of its natural systems. Management of the area has been problematic as it is covered by four different states'

. As the

significance of the basin has become known and mismanagement of the Murray-Darling Basin became apparent during several drought cycles, it became clear that ongoing management issues had to be resolved. In 2001 the Lake Eyre Basin Intergovernmental Agreement was signed, and the Lake Eyre Basin Intergovernmental Agreement was set up to ensure the sustainability of the Lake Eyre Basin river systems, particularly to avoid or eliminate cross-border impacts. The Lake Eyre Basin Ministerial Forum was established as the decision making body responsible for overseeing of the Agreement. The Ministerial Forum created a Community Advisory Committee to provide advice and facilitate community participation and a Scientific Advisory Panel to advise on scientific and technical issues. On 7 September 2018 the Lake Eyre Basin Ministerial Forum agreed to release the second review of the agreement.

Land use and mining

Low density grazing is the major land use, occupying 82% of the total land within the basin. Significant minerals deposits such as oil and natural gas, including Australia's most significant onshore petroleum reserves, are found within the basin. The mining and petroleum industries account for the greatest economic activity in the Lake Eyre Basin.

Opal Opal is a hydrated amorphous form of silica (SiO2·''n''H2O); its water content may range from 3 to 21% by weight, but is usually between 6 and 10%. Due to its amorphous property, it is classified as a mineraloid, unlike crystalline form ...

s, coal,

phosphate In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthophosphoric acid . The phosphate or orthophosphate ion is derived from phosph ...

gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and drywa ...

and

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

are also mined from the basin. In 2009, the Queensland

Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale ...

confirmed that heavy metals from mining operations near Mount Isa had entered the upper reaches of the Georgina River. The spill has the potential to contaminate parts of the basin as far south as Lake Eyre. In 2014, the

changed the laws protecting the rivers and floodplains, which, according to

environmentalist An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that se ...

s, could lead to shale gas mining or

fracking Fracking (also known as hydraulic fracturing, hydrofracturing, or hydrofracking) is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of bedrock formations by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the high-pressure injection of "frac ...

in the area. there are fears that mining for

could be very detrimental to the fragile environment of the floodplains.

Protected areas

The Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre National Park,

Strzelecki Regional Reserve Strzelecki Regional Reserve is a protected area located in the Australian state of South Australia in the gazetted localities of Lindon and Strzelecki Desert about north-east of Port Augusta. It includes the Strzelecki Desert and the dry Strz ...

Witjira National Park Witjira National Park is a protected area in the Australian state of South Australia about north of the state capital of Adelaide. History The national park was proclaimed on 21 November 1985 to "protect Australia’s largest array of artesian ...

Sturt National Park The Sturt National Park is a protected national park that is located in the arid far north-western corner of New South Wales, in eastern Australia. The national park is situated approximately northwest of Sydney and the nearest town is , awa ...

Diamantina National Park Diamantina National Park is a national park in the Channel Country of South West Queensland, Australia, west of Brisbane. Like the Diamantina River that flows through it, it is named for Lady Diamantina Bowen, wife of Sir George Bowen, the firs ...

, and Simpson Desert National Park are among a number of protected areas established within the Lake Eyre Basin.

River diversion schemes

The Bradfield Scheme was an ambitious proposal by Dr John Bradfield in 1938. It would use large

pipes Pipe(s), PIPE(S) or piping may refer to: Objects * Pipe (fluid conveyance), a hollow cylinder following certain dimension rules ** Piping, the use of pipes in industry * Smoking pipe ** Tobacco pipe * Half-pipe and quarter pipe, semi-circula ...

, tunnels, pumps and dams to divert water from the

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...

-fed Tully, Herbert and Burdekin rivers into the Thomson River,

. After a critical review in 1947 support for the scheme fell through. However, in the 2010s interest in various updated or amended Bradfield schemes have increased among various politicians. Other less-developed diversion schemes have been proposed to divert river or sea water into the Lake Eyre Basin from time to time.