Darling River

Covering an impressive 1,472 kilometers, the Darling River is the third-longest river in Australia.

It is also known as 'Baaka' or 'Barka' in the Paakantyi language of the Barkindji people. Aboriginal peoples have lived along the Darling River for tens of thousands of years. Major Thomas Mitchell traveled a portion of the river in 1835 and it was a major transportation route in the later 19th century.

In 1992, the Darling River suffered from a severe cyanobacterial bloom, but in 2008, the Federal government purchased Toorale Station to allow for the return of environmental flows back into the river. The Darling River drains parts of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, and South Australia. It begins between Brewarrina and Bourke and joins the Murray River at Wentworth. The Menindee Lakes, southeast of Broken Hill, are a series of once connected lakes to the Darling River. It has a high salt content and declining water quality. The Darling River has played a role in Australian popular culture, with poets like Henry Lawson and Will H. Ogilvie writing about it. The band Midnight Oil also drew attention to the negative effects of cotton farming on the river in their song 'Barka-Darling River.'