Suburban Australian Waterways Trivia Quiz

Answer: Hawkesbury River

The Hawkesbury-Nepean is a magnificent waterway, given two names by European explorers before they realised that the big broad inlet at Broken Bay (the Hawkesbury River) was connected to the deep inland river west of Sydney (the Nepean River). The name change occurs near Richmond, when the Grose River tributary joins the Nepean.

Answer: The Tank Stream

The stream flowed into the cove near the junction of what are now Pitt and Bridge Streets. Water tanks cut into the sandstone to collect the water gave the stream its name.

Answer: Molonglo River

The Molonglo and Cotter Rivers are both tributaries of the Murrumbidgee, and all three flow through the Canberra region. The Cotter flows into the Murrumbidgee from the Brindabella Ranges west of Canberra, and the Molonglo flows through Canberra from the southern tablelands in the southeast. There is no Burley Griffin River in Canberra.

Answer: Maribyrnong River

The Yarra winds its way through Melbourne's north east, flows through the central business district, then makes a large bend through the dockland areas separating the suburbs of Footscray and Port Melbourne. It is at this bend that the Maribyrnong River joins the Yarra, at Yarraville, just before it flows into Port Phillip Bay. Kororoit Creek flows directly into Port Phillip Bay at Altona, further to the south-west of the Yarra's mouth, and the Werribee River enters the Bay even further south-west, at Werribee. Dandenong Creek flows into the Bay far to the south-east, at Carrum, as the Patterson River.

Answer: River Derwent

The capital, Hobart, lies on the mouth of the River Derwentt in the south-east of the state, often credited as the deepest sheltered harbour in the southern hemisphere. The Franklin-Gordon River system, the subject of a famous and successful environmental campaign in the 1980s to prevent its being dammed, lies in the far less urbanised west of the state.

Answer: Sturt River

Charles Sturt and his party were the first Europeans to prove that many of Australia's westward flowing rivers joined the Murray, and to travel down the Murray from New South Wales to its mouth in South Australia. Later in life, Sturt attempted to reach central Australia from Adelaide, but poor health in the harsh desert conditions forced him to turn back.

Answer: The Simpson Desert

The Todd, like other nearby waterways including the major central Australian river, the Finke, flows towards the dunes of the Simpson Desert, and simply stops, sinking into the sand or drying up.

Answer: Mangroves

The land surrounding the whole of Ludmilla Creek and the downstream half of Rapid Creek is all mangrove growing on tidal flats, and so is prone to flooding from high tides. This is the reason no houses may be built there.

Answer: Fremantle Harbour

After it passes the Perth central business district, the Swan balloons into Perth Water, then passes The Narrows to enter a huge estuary. Lucky Bay is a part of this estuary. To reach the ocean, the river then narrows substantially, funnelling through a small channel of which Fremantle Harbour is the final stretch.

Answer: Tweed River

Coolangatta is a Queensland town nearby on the far south of the Gold Coast, but Tweed Heads, the town at the Tweed River's outlet, is in New South Wales. The Gold Coast is an extraordinary place, being urbanised and built-up despite the fact that not too far inland are exquisite rainforest and extensive sugar cane farms.