The Annan River ( Kuku Nyungkal: ''Yuku Baja'') 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 the Wet Tropics of Far North

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.

Course and features

The river rises in the Yorkey Range below Mount Romeo near , north-northwest of . The river flows generally in a north-westerly direction, joined by three minor

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 ...

that drain waters from the Trevethan Range before finally heading eastwards to Walker Bay. At its

river mouth A river mouth is where a river flows into a larger body of water, such as another river, a lake/reservoir, a bay/gulf, a sea, or an ocean. At the river mouth, sediments are often deposited due to the slowing of the current reducing the carrying ...

, the Annan River is joined by the Esk River and together the two rivers empty 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 ...

south of . The river descends over its course and flows through the

Kalkajaka National Park Kalkajaka National Park is a protected area in Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia.Accessed 24 February 2009 United Nations University's Media Studio's (2008) video brief including Kuku Nyunkal woman (Marilyn Wallace) visiting KalkajakaAccess ...

and the Annan River (Yuku Baja-Muliku) National Park. The river has a

catchment area In human geography, a catchment area is the area from which a location, such as a city, service or institution, attracts a population that uses its services and economic opportunities. Catchment areas may be defined based on from where people are ...

of . Being in a wet-dry tropical climate the river receives the majority of its approximately rainfall per year between the months of December and April, a period known as the

wet season The wet season (sometimes called the Rainy season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. It is the time of year where the majority of a country's or region's annual precipitation occurs. Generally, the sea ...

. The river is crossed by the

Mulligan Highway The Mulligan Highway is a state highway in Queensland, Australia. It runs for approximately 266 km between Mareeba and Cooktown, on the east coast of Cape York Peninsula Cape York Peninsula is a large peninsula located in Far North Q ...

near Rossville and again closer to its mouth.

Etymology

The river was given its

gazette A gazette is an official journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper. In English and French speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name ''Gazette'' since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspapers ...

d name by an early Australian pastoralist and

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...

, John Jardine, who, on 11 November 1865, named it after the

River Annan The River Annan (''Abhainn Anann'' in Gaelic) is a river in south-west Scotland. It rises on Annanhead Hill and flows through the Devil's Beef Tub, Moffat and Lockerbie, reaching the sea at Annan, Dumfries and Galloway after about 40 miles. ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, while on passage in .

History

Much of ''Yuku Baja'' (i.e. its waterfalls, waterholes, and waters) hold locally indigenous names, inspire locally indigenous religious beliefs, and have been a primary source of life, sustenance, foods, and water for many thousands of generations of predecessors to the

Kuku Nyungkal people The Kuku Nyungkal people (or Annan River Tribe) are a group of Australian Aborigines, Aboriginal Australians who are the original custodians of the coastal mountain slopes, Wet Tropics of Queensland, wet tropical forests, waters, and waterfalls ...

(also known as the Annan River Tribe), for many thousands of years. Towards the end of the 19th century non- Aboriginal peoples had started to colonize the Far North Queensland region, and with the shift from predominantly

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

mining activity (especially at

Palmer River The Palmer River is a river located in Far North Queensland, Australia. The area surrounding the river was the site of a gold rush in the late 19th century which started in 1873. Course and features The headwaters of the Palmer River rise in ...

) to

tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal. Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

and

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

mining, they started to move into the Annan River catchment and Kuku Nyungkal country. By 1885 Charles Ross had discovered tin in the upper Annan River area (firstly Mount Amos, then Mounts Hartley, Leswell and Romeo).

Sluicing In syntax, sluicing is a type of ellipsis that occurs in both direct and indirect interrogative clauses. The ellipsis is introduced by a ''wh''-expression, whereby in most cases, everything except the ''wh''-expression is elided from the clause. S ...

began that year, leading to a small-scale tin mining rush into Kuku Nyungkal country during 1886. Following this rush, for a number of years, a small but vibrant tin mining industry was able to mine lucrative tin deposits directly from underground lodes, creek beds and banks. Later, the industry had to adapt to exhausted supplies by consolidating and building water channels (races) through the Upper Annan River ranges to access higher, more difficult to reach deposits. One such -long race, known as the Annan River Company Water Race, was first built at the cost of an

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

based company in 1902 and is now cultural heritage listed and protected as Queensland heritage. The tin mining and other 'disturbance' history of the otherwise more pristine Annan River catchment can be briefly summarized as follows:

"This catchment has been quite extensively mined for tin since the late 19th century. Some small alluvial tin mining leases may still ... contribute significant sediment loads to the river. Other disturbances in the Annan catchment include unsealed roads and fords, grazing, and a number of small residential developments."

Heritage listings

The

heritage-listed This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and man-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In many ...

Annan River Bridge Annan River Bridge is a Queensland Heritage Register, heritage-listed bridge, road bridge over the Annan River at Development Road, Cooktown, Queensland, Cooktown, Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by John Henry Daniells a ...

, located on Development Road, Cooktown, is a rare example of a plate girder and screw pile bridge. It is also an uncommon example of a low-level bridge.

Vegetation

The

Department of the Environment An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment, ...

Natural Resource Atlas categorized the Annan River catchment as "Low Development", with less than 30% of its total catchment area being developed. The catchment as a whole has been described as being "...at the pristine end of the disturbance spectrum...", extensively forested as follows:

"...the southern and eastern portions repredominantly
rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...
and open
eucalypt Eucalypt is a descriptive name for woody plants with capsule fruiting bodies belonging to seven closely related genera (of the tribe Eucalypteae) found across Australasia: ''Eucalyptus'', '' Corymbia'', '' Angophora'', ''Stockwellia'', ''Allosyn ...
forest. The western and northern parts are more sparsely vegetated consisting of open eucalypt forest and
woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...
with pockets of rainforest along Oaky Creek. The
alluvial plain An alluvial plain is a largely flat landform created by the deposition of sediment over a long period of time by one or more rivers coming from highland regions, from which alluvial soil forms. A floodplain is part of the process, being the sma ...
s are covered by tall
shrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity. It m ...
. The estuarine portion of the river comprises large areas of ephemeral and tidal
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) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...
s..."

References

External links

United Nations University's Media Studio's (2008) Video brief showing Annan River and telling of perceived climate change in the Upper Annan catchment
Accessed 23 February 2009 {{Rivers of Queensland Rivers of Far North Queensland Wet Tropics of Queensland Bodies of water of the Coral Sea