Nicholson River (Queensland)

The Nicholson River is a river located in the Northern Territory and the state of Queensland, Australia.

The location of the Aboriginal mission at Doomadgee was also historically referred to as Nicholson River in some sources.[2]

The headwaters of the river rise at the western end of China Wall on the Barkly Tableland,[3] in the Northern Territory and head in a south easterly direction. The river then heads due east and crosses the border into the northwest region of Queensland near Nudjabarra across mostly uninhabited plains. It continues east across the Shadforth Plain and past the Aboriginal community of Doomadgee. The river then veers north near the Tiranna Roadhouse across Hann Crossing and past Escott, just west of Burketown where it is joined by its main tributary the Gregory River. The river continues north and later discharges into Pasco Inlet and the Gulf of Carpentaria.[1] The ephemeral Nicholson has a length of approximately 390 kilometres (242 mi).[4]

The drainage basin of the river occupies an area of 53,200 square kilometres (20,541 sq mi)[5] of which an area of 15,733 square kilometres (6,075 sq mi) is in the Northern Territory and the rest in Queensland. The watershed is wedged between the watersheds for the Robinson River and Settlement Creek watersheds to the north, the Barkly River catchment to the south[6] and the Leichhardt River catchment to the east.

The river had a mean annual discharge of 2,237 gigalitres (4.92×1011 imp gal; 5.91×1011 US gal).[7]