page_title: Burdekin River
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Burdekin River / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Burdekin River at its lowest level, 1948 Burdekin River in the dry season, showing weeds and sandbanks.
context_page_description: The Burdekin River is a river located in North and Far North Queensland, Australia. The river rises on the northern slopes of Boulder Mountain at Valley of Lagoons, part of the western slope of the Seaview Range, and flows into the Coral Sea at Upstart Bay over 200 kilometres to the southeast of the source, with a catchment area of approximately 130,000 square kilometres. The Burdekin River is Australia's largest river by discharge volume.
  The river was first encountered by Europeans during the expedition led by Ludwig Leichhardt in 1845 and named in honour of Thomas Burdekin, one of the sponsors of the expedition.
context_section_description: Gugu Badhun (also known as Koko-Badun and Kokopatun) is an Australian Aboriginal language of North Queensland. The language region includes areas within the local government area of Charters Towers Region, particularly the localities of Greenvale and the Valley of Lagoons, and in the Upper Burdekin River area and in Abergowrie.
  Yuru (also known as Juru, Euronbba, Juru, Mal Mal, Malmal) is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken on Yuru country. The Yuru language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of the Shire of Burdekin, including the town of Home Hill.
  The river was first discovered by Europeans by John Clements Wickham aboard HMS Beagle in 1839 who named it the Wickham River. In 1849, Ludwig Leichhardt named the river after Thomas Burdekin, one of the sponsors of Leichhardt's expedition.  Because he was inland away from the coast he was not aware it was the same watercourse named by Wickham. The town of Wickham was established on Rita Island at the river mouth but was soon swept away during a flood in the 1860s.
  Pastoralists had established runs along the river during the 1860s, with some along the lower reached taken for selection in the 1880s.
  In 1899, the Burdekin River Rail Bridge was built over the river about 24 km NE of Charters Towers to carry the Great Northern railway. Although replaced by a new bridge in 1964, the old bridge remains and is listed on the Queensland Heritage Register.
  The townships of Ayr and Brandon were established in 1882 with many sugarmills being erected. The North Coast railway between Ayr and Townsville with a bridge built over the Burdekin to Home Hill in 1913 followed by bridge for road traffic in 1930. Both were too low and often damaged during flooding and the decision was made to replace them with a higher dual level bridge known as the Silver Link. Construction commenced in 1947 and was not completed until 1957 when the bridge opened.
  A weir was constructed in a gorge in the Leichhardt Range for settlement farms near Clare and Dalbeg in 1953 for growing tobacco. In 1984 construction of the Burdekin Falls Dam commenced and was completed by 1987 when the dam started to fill forming Lake Dalrymple.
caption: Burdekin River at its lowest level, 1948
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