If you look at the map of Australia, you can see that most of its rivers are marked with a dotted line. This reflects their unstable nature: often the rivers of this continent become full only after heavy rains. The exception is the Murray River, with its main tributary, the Darling, which is comparatively full-flowing. This river is considered the longest in Australia.
The largest river in Australia
Murray is considered a major river not only by the standards of its continent. The total length of Murray is 2375 km, and together with Darling it is almost two hundred kilometers longer than the length of the Volga. But in terms of the abundance of water, the Murray is significantly inferior to most of the major European rivers.
The longest river in Australia is easy enough to find on a map in the eastern part of the continent. Its path passes through a variety of natural landscapes: mountains, forests, swamps. The river flows past towns and agricultural land. The Murray, with its tributaries, attracts a variety of life forms that have successfully adapted to its peculiarities.
Murray has its origins in the highest mountains of the southern continent, the Australian Alps. The largest tributaries of the river begin much further north. Flowing from east to west, the Murray receives less rainfall, but still remains a full-flowing river. If you go downstream, you can get acquainted with the whole variety of flora and fauna in Australia.
In the vastness of the lower Murray, you can find Australia's largest bird, the emu and kangaroo.
Features of the Murray River
The Murray River is distinguished by the fact that it is free for navigation throughout the year. The width of the river in some places reaches a kilometer. Passenger ships climb almost two thousand kilometers along the river. But the navigational characteristics of its tributary, the Darling, depend almost entirely on the amount of precipitation.
A very large proportion of Murray's water is used to irrigate the land. An elaborate irrigation system serves this purpose. To properly distribute the water resources of Murray, dams and dams are arranged along the entire length of the river. The Murray Basin also has an artificial lake that collects rainwater.
It is the water resources of Australia's longest and deepest river that make it possible to transform desert places into flowering plains.
There is a project that assumes that the waters of all small rivers that flow down the eastern slopes of the mountain system will be let into Murray. If the project succeeds, the river beds could be turned westward and then brought their waters to Murray. Due to this, the possibilities of the irrigation system of the river complex will greatly increase.
Australia is an arid continent. Much of the precipitation that falls here evaporates. The rest is carried away by the rivers. Moreover, half of the total amount of precipitation carried away by rivers falls on the largest river in Australia. For this reason, the importance of Murray in the life of the country can hardly be overestimated.
