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List of drainage basins of Australia facts for kids

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A drainage basin is an extent of land where water from rain and melting snow or ice drains downhill into a body of water, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea or ocean. The drainage basin includes both the streams and rivers that convey the water as well as the land surfaces from which water drains into those channels, and is separated from adjacent basins by a drainage divide.

Major drainage basins are coded by hierarchy within the National Catchment Boundaries (NCB) dataset, with primary drainage basins attributed Level 1 and smaller river catchment subdivisions attributed Level 2. Beyond that, minor river and creek watersheds are ranked by the Pfafstetter Coding System. This article deals with surface water rather than groundwater basins, such as the Great Artesian Basin.

Australia has twelve distinguished NCB Level 1 drainage divisions or thirteen after splitting the South East Coast division at the New South Wales–Victoria border as defined by the Australian Water Resources Assessment 2012, a hydrological survey conducted by the Bureau of Meteorology. Runoff from these divisions generally flows into the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean and Lake Eyre.

Drainage Divisions of Australia
Australia's 13 drainage divisions


List of NCB Level 1 drainage basins

Code Name Area (km2) Average rainfall (mm) Accessible surface storage capacity (GL) Major rivers Drains to Notes
NEC North East Coast (Queensland) 451,000 827 9,771 Suttor River, Belyando River, Nogoa River Coral Sea (Pacific Ocean)
SEN South East Coast (NSW) 129,500 995 4,056 Manning River, Karuah River, Hunter River, Hawkesbury River Tasman Sea (Pacific Ocean)
SEV South East Coast (Victoria) 134,600 734 7,570 Thomson River (VIC), Macalister River, Snowy River, Yarra River, Glenelg River Southern Ocean, Bass Strait
TAS Tasmania 68,000 1,398 22,041 River Derwent, Gordon River, Huon River, South Esk River Southern Ocean, Bass Strait, Tasman Sea (Pacific Ocean) Much of the storage capacity is used for hydroelectricity
MDB Murray-Darling Basin 1,061,000 458 25,320 Murray River, Darling River, Murrumbidgee River, Lachlan River Southern Ocean
SAG South Australian Gulf 117,700 306 197 River Torrens, Onkaparinga River, Gawler River, Broughton River Great Australian Bight (Southern Ocean)
SWP South Western Plateau 1,093,000 232 No data Great Australian Bight (Southern Ocean) Driest region in Australia with no major storage
SWC South West Coast 326,000 439 959 Avon River, Blackwood River Indian Ocean, Great Australian Bight (Southern Ocean)
PG Pilbara-Gascoyne 478,000 259 63 Greenough River, Murchison River Indian Ocean
NWP North Western Plateau 716,000 316 No data De Grey River Indian Ocean No major storage
TTS Tanami-Timor Sea Coast 1,162,000 656 10,747 Ord River, Alligator Rivers, Daly River, Katherine River, Fitzroy River Timor Sea (Indian Ocean)
LEB Lake Eyre Basin 1,281,000 242 No data Georgina River, Diamantina River, Thomson River (QLD), Barcoo River, Cooper Creek Lake Eyre Only major surface Endorheic basin
CC Carpentaria Coast 647,000 744 99 Mitchell River, Flinders River, Gilbert River, Leichhardt River Gulf of Carpentaria, Arafura Sea
  • A New drainage basin codes assigned by the Bureau of Meteorology in 2010. Previous codes were labelled using Roman Numerals. See [1] for details.
  • B Long term average from July 1911 to June 2010
  • C The obsolete Australia River Basins 1997 survey listed the Bulloo-Bancannia drainage basin as a separate division, but has now been combined with the Lake Eyre Basin.
  • D Known in Queensland as Gulf Basin

List of NCB Level 2 drainage basins

The following is a list of river or island catchments that are subdivisions of the basin containing them.

North East Coast

See also

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