Black River (Queensland)

The Black River is a river in North Queensland, Australia.

Black
Location of Black River mouth in Queensland
Etymology	John Melton Black
Location
Country	Australia
State	Queensland
Region	North Queensland
Physical characteristics
Source	Great Dividing Range
• location	west of Mount Cataract
• coordinates	19°17′09″S 146°25′29″E
• elevation	84 m (276 ft)
Mouth	Coral Sea
• location	Bushland Beach
• coordinates	19°10′48″S 146°39′06″E
• elevation	0 m (0 ft)
Length	33 km (21 mi)
Basin size	306.7 km2 (118.4 sq mi)[1]
Discharge
• location	Near mouth
• average	3.7 m3/s (120 GL/a)[1]
[2]

The headwaters of the river rise near Ben Lomond East in the Great Dividing Range and flow in a northeasterly direction. The river flows roughly parallel with the Hervey Range Developmental Road past Mount Cataract and Mount Black on the Bohle Plains. The river is crossed by the Bruce Highway near Kulburr and discharges into the Coral Sea between Yabulu and Beach Holm approximately 10 kilometres (6 mi) north west of Townsville.

The river descends 84 metres (276 ft) over its 33-kilometre (21 mi) course.[2] The catchment area occupies 1,060 square kilometres (409 sq mi), including 36 square kilometres (14 sq mi) of riverine wetlands and 10.6 square kilometres (4 sq mi) of estuarine wetlands.[3]

A total of 22 species of fish have been found in the river, including the glassfish, Roman nose Goby, Fly-specked hardyhead, Golden Gudgeon, Jungle Perch, Barramundi, oxeye herring, eastern rainbowfish, spotted scat, and Crescent Perch.[4]

The river is named after John Melton Black who was a pastoralist, merchant and a settler of Townsville. The outer Townsville suburb of Black River is named after the river which flows through northern side of the area.[5]

The Alice River is a tributary of the Black River with a confluence at 19°15′00″S 146°37′59″E.[6] The river is the western boundary of the Townsville suburb of Alice River.[7]