Updated: 09 October 2007
Longest Rivers
Australia's Longest Rivers
| NAME |
STATE |
LENGTH (km) approximate |
| Murray River |
New South Wales / South Australia |
2520 |
| Murrumbidgee River |
New South Wales / Australian Capital Territory |
1575 |
| Darling River (from the Murray River to Culgoa River) |
New South Wales |
1390 |
| Lachlan River |
New South Wales |
1370 |
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Longest River by State/Territory
| STATE/TERRITORY |
NAME |
LENGTH (km) approximate |
| New South Wales |
Murray River |
1870 |
| Queensland |
Flinders River |
840 |
| Western Australia |
Gascoyne River |
760 |
| South Australia |
Murray River |
650 |
| Victoria |
Goulburn River |
566 |
| Northern Territory |
Victoria |
560 |
| Tasmania |
South Esk River |
214 |
| Australian Capital Territory |
Murrumbidgee |
51 |
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Longest Continuous River System
The Murray River and its tributary, the Darling River, are the main rivers in the Murray-Darling River Basin. This drainage basin comprises the major part of the interior lowlands of Australia, covering more than one million square kilometres, or about 14 per cent of Australia.
The Darling River flows south from the junction of the Culgoa and Barwon rivers. Although the Culgoa is longer than the Barwon, the source of the Darling is generally agreed to be the Barwon River as it has the greater volume of water. The headwaters of the Darling can be traced to the MacIntyre River, which starts in the Great Dividing Range, and forms part of the border between NSW and Queensland. It eventually flows south into the Barwon. The Barwon-MacIntyre section is sometimes referred to as the Upper Darling. When measured from its source in Queensland to its mouth on the coast south-east of Adelaide, the Murray-Darling river system is 3370 kilometres long, about half the length of the world's longest river, the Nile.
| NAME |
STATE |
LENGTH (km) |
| Longest Continuous River System
- Murray-Darling River System |
Queensland / New South Wales / South Australia |
3370 |
| Longest River - Murray River |
New South Wales / South Australia |
2520 |
| Darling (from the Murray River to Culgoa River) |
New South Wales |
1390 |
| Upper Darling (Barwon and MacIntyre Rivers) |
New South Wales / Queensland |
1140 |
| Culgoa and Condamine Rivers |
New South Wales / Queensland |
1350 |
Source: Geoscience Australia
GEODATA TOPO-250K database.
