page_title: Lachlan River
section_title: Course
hierarchical_section_title: Lachlan River / Course
caption_attribution_description: Lachlan River at Oxley, New South Wales
context_page_description: The Lachlan River is an intermittent river that is part of the Murrumbidgee catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, located in the Southern Tablelands, Central West, and Riverina regions of New South Wales, Australia.
  The Lachlan River is connected to the Murray Darling basin only when both the Lachlan and Murrumbidgee Rivers are in flood. It is the only river in New South Wales with significant wetlands along its length, rather than just towards its end, including Lake Cowal-Wilbertroy, Lake Cargelligo and Lake Brewster, and nine wetlands of national significance.
context_section_description: The river rises on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range in the Southern Tablelands district of New South Wales, formed by the confluence of Hannans Creek and Mutmutbilly Creek, 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) east of Gunning. The river flows generally north-west, north, west and south-west, joined by thirty-seven tributaries including the Crookwell, Abercrombie, Boorowa, and Belubula rivers before terminating near Oxley in the 500-square-kilometre (190 sq mi) Great Cumbung swamp that joins the Murrumbidgee River to the south and becomes part of the Lowbidgee Floodplain. The river descends 632 metres (2,073 ft) over its 1,440-kilometre (890 mi) course.
  The river is impounded by Wyangala Dam, near Cowra and Brewster Weir, located between Lake Cargelligo and Hillston; and passes through the towns of Breadalbane, Reids Flat, Wyangala, Cowra, Gooloogong, Forbes, Euabalong, Condobolin, Lake Cargelligo, Hillston, Booligal, and Oxley.
  The annual flow of the Lachlan is erratic. Annual flows have ranged from less than 1,000 megalitres (35×10⁶ cu ft) in 1944 to as much as 10,900 megalitres (380×10⁶ cu ft) in 1950. In dry years, the Lachlan can have periods of zero flow of over a year (for example from April 1944 to April 1945), which is a complete contrast to the Murray and Murrumbidgee which have not been known to cease to flow since European settlement.  The river has flooded every seven years since 1887 at Forbes.
  The social-ecological systems of the Lachlan River and its catchment include its upper tablelands, mixed farming slopes, through to plains, rangelands, and then lower floodplains. More than 100,000 people live in the Lachlan catchment. It is estimated that 12% of the state's agricultural businesses are located from within the Lachlan River catchment.
caption: The Lachlan River at Oxley
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