Nepean River
Nepean River, is a major perennial river, located in the south-west and west of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The Nepean River and its associated mouth, the Hawkesbury River encircle the metropolitan region of Sydney; the headwaters of the Nepean River rise near Robertson, about 100 kilometres south of Sydney and about 15 kilometres from the Tasman Sea. The river flows north in an unpopulated water catchment area into Nepean Reservoir, which supplies potable water for Sydney. North of the dam, the river forms the western edge of Sydney, flowing past the town of Camden and the city of Penrith, south of which flowing through the Nepean Gorge. Near Wallacia it is joined by the dammed Warragamba River; the river supplies water to Sydney's five million people as well as supplying agricultural production. This, combined with increased pressures from land use change for urban development, means the river has been suffering significant stress. There are eleven weirs located on the Nepean River that regulate its natural flow.
The river has been segmented into a series of weir lakes rather than a flowing river and is impacted by dams in the Upper Nepean catchment. The Wallacia Weir was built as a wooden weir for the John Blaxland flour mill at Grove Farm; the first Australian fishsteps were built when the current concrete weir was built at the beginning of the Nepean Gorge, an anticendant entrenched meander caused by the slow uplift during the Blue Mountains orogeny carved down through the fifty-million-year-old Hawkesbury sandstone. In the 1950s the building of the Warragamba Dam across the steep gorge of the Warragamba River, the Nepean’s major tributary, intercepted the flow of the great bulk of its waters and diverted them to meet the needs of the growing Sydney metropolitan area, reducing the river to a shadow of its former self; these dams and weirs have had a potent effect, blocking migratory native fish like Australian bass from much of their former habitat, reducing floods and freshets needed for spawning.
The Hawkesbury/Nepean remains an important and popular wild bass fishery. The luscious banks of the Nepean River provide a natural haven for local flora and fauna and a quiet location for local residents to relax. At Emu Plains, the western bank of the river provides a location for outdoor theatre productions on warm summer nights; the eastern bank at Penrith provides barbecue facilities and children's play equipment, as well as a wide pathway running for several kilometres for strolls along the riverbank. The eastern bank is the home of the Nepean Rowing Club. Aboriginal people used the river and their fish traps could be seen at Yarramundi before sand and gravel mining redirected the river. Charles Darwin wrote of people at Emu Ford, commenting on their skill with spears, while Watkin Tench of the Royal Marines noted their use of spears and nets to capture fish; the people of the Nepean region regularly traded with people of the western plains via a route that Bell followed when he laid down an alternate route over the mountains, now called Bells Line of Road.
Near Penrith, since 1971 numerous Aboriginal stone tools were found in Cranebrook Terraces gravel sediments deposited by the Nepean River 40,000 to 50,000 years ago, according to repeated and corroborated radiocarbon and thermoluminescence dating. At first when these results were new they were controversial. More in 1987 and 2003 dating of the same sediments strata has revised and corroborated these dates. A great many more artefacts made by people have been found in the region dating back to within the last 5,000 years; when the British colony was established at Sydney in 1788, the Governor, Sir Arthur Phillip, charted the coast 50 km north to the mouth of the Hawkesbury and around 32 km upstream till they were stopped by a waterfall, most at Hawkesbury Heights. Phillip named the river after Lord Hawkesbury titled Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool, President of the Privy Council Standing Committee on Trade. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Watkin Tench set off to walk west of Sydney. About 60 kilometres inland, at the foot of the Blue Mountains, he discovered a large river which he named Nepean after Evan Nepean, the Under Secretary of State at the Home Office and a close personal friend of Arthur Phillip.
It took about three years to realise. Nepean river was one of the pivotal sites of the Hawkesbury and Nepean Wars, a series of civil wars between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the resisting Indigenous clans in the late 1700s and early 1800s. During the 1820s, the Nepean district's most famous early settler, the landowner and physician Sir John Jamison, erected a Georgian mansion, called Regentville House, on the model estate which he had established on a rise overlooking the river, not far from the present-day city of Penrith. A fire devastated the house in the 1860s. Jamison is considered one of agricultural pioneers. Despite forming the effective western and south-western boundary of the metropolitan region of Sydney for its entire length, there are few fixed crossings of the Nepean River. A proposed additional crossing of the Nepean River is being planned as a transport corridor for pedestrians and cyclists. Going upstream, these comprise: The first flood on record - a small occurrence - was in 1795.
Others followed in 1799, March & October 1806 and 1809. In 1810, after a series of major floods on the Hawkesbury, Governor Macquarie proclaimed the ‘Macquar
Yarra River
The Yarra River or the Yarra Yarra River, is a perennial river in east-central Victoria, Australia. The lower stretches of the river are where the city of Melbourne was established in 1835 and today Greater Melbourne dominates and influences the landscape of its lower reaches. From its source in the Yarra Ranges, it flows 242 kilometres west through the Yarra Valley which opens out into plains as it winds its way through Greater Melbourne before emptying into Hobsons Bay in northernmost Port Phillip; the river was a major food source and meeting place for indigenous Australians from prehistoric times. Shortly after the arrival of European settlers land clearing forced the remaining Wurundjeri to neighbouring territories and away from the river. Called Birrarung by the Wurundjeri, the current name was mistranslated from another Wurundjeri term in the Boonwurrung language; the river was utilised for agriculture by early European settlers. The landscape of the river has changed since 1835; the course has been progressively disrupted and the river widened in places.
The first of many Crossings of the Yarra River to facilitate transport was built in Princes Bridge. Beginning with the Victorian gold rush it was extensively mined, creating the Pound Bend Tunnel in Warrandyte, the Big and Little Peninsula Tunnels above Warburton. Widening and dams, like the Upper Yarra Reservoir have helped protect Melbourne from major flooding; the catchment's upper reaches are affected by logging. Industrialisation led to the destruction of the marshlands at the confluence of the Yarra and Maribyrnong Rivers in the area around Coode Island in West Melbourne. Today, the mouth and including Swanson and Appleton Docks are used for container shipping by the Port of Melbourne, the busiest on the continent; the city reach, inaccessible to larger watercraft, has seen increased use for both transport and recreational boating. In recent years however recreational use of the river is threatened by high levels of pollution in its lower stretches; the upper reaches remain healthy. The annual Moomba festival celebrates the Yarra River's increasing cultural significance to Melbourne.
The river was called Birrarung by the Wurundjeri people who occupied the Yarra Valley and much of Central Victoria prior to European colonisation. It is thought that Birrarung is derived from Wurundjeri words meaning "ever flowing". Another common term was Birrarung Marr, thought to mean "river of mist" or "river bank". Upon European arrival it was given the name'Yarra Yarra' by John Helder Wedge of the Port Phillip Association in 1835, in the mistaken belief that this was the Aboriginal name for the river in the Boonwurrung language; however it is believed that'Yarra' means "waterfall", "flow", or refers to running or falling water, descriptive of any river or creek in the area, not just the Yarra. The name Yarra Yarra is said to mean "ever flowing river", but most refers to the Yarra Yarra falls which were dynamited. Of their contact with local Wurunderi people in 1835, John Wedge wrote: On arriving in sight of the river, the two natives who were with me, pointing to the river, called out,'Yarra Yarra', which at the time I imagined to be its name.
Sometime before 6000 BC, the Yarra river was joined with other tributaries such as rivers now called the Patterson, Werribee and drained directly into Bass Strait through what is now called the Rip. Between 8000 BC and 6000 BC, the basin flooded forming Port Phillip Bay and moving the "mouth" of the Yarra over 50 km inland. A dry period combined with sand bar formation may have dried the bay out as as between 800 BC and 1000 AD extending the Yarra to Bass Strait during this period; the area surrounding the Yarra River and modern day Melbourne was inhabited by Natives of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. It is believed; the river was an important resource for the Wurundjeri people and several sites along the river and its tributaries were important meeting places where corroborees were held between indigenous communities. The river's resources were utilised sustainably by the Wurundjeri until the advent of early European settlement in the early-mid-19th century. In 1803, the first Europeans sailed up the river, a surveying party led by Charles Grimes, Acting Surveyor General of New South Wales, sailed upstream to Dights Falls where they could no longer continue due to the nature of the terrain.
European explorers would not enter the river for another 30 years until, in 1835, the area, now central and northern Melbourne was explored by John Batman, a leading member of the Port Phillip Association, who negotiated a transaction for 600,000 acres of land from eight Wurundjeri elders. He selected a site on the northern bank of the Yarra River, declaring that "this will be the place for a village"; the river was instrumental in the establishment of Melbourne along its banks from 1835 onwards. The new settlement's main port was sited just downstream of Yarra Falls west of modern-day Queen's Bridge, the place where saltwater met freshwater. Ships would use one side of the falls while the other side provided fresh drinking water for the town and a convenient sewer. In the city's early days the
Parramatta River
The Parramatta River is an intermediate tide dominated, drowned valley estuary located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. With an average depth of 5.1 metres, the Parramatta River is the main tributary of Sydney Harbour, a branch of Port Jackson. Secondary tributaries include Duck rivers. Formed by the confluence of Toongabbie Creek and Darling Mills Creek at North Parramatta, the river flows in an easterly direction to a line between Yurulbin and Manns Point, Greenwich. Here it flows into about 21 kilometres from the Tasman Sea; the total catchment area of the river is 252.4 square kilometres and is tidal to Charles Street Weir in Parramatta 30 kilometres from the Sydney Heads. The land adjacent to the Parramatta River was occupied for many thousands of years by the Burramattagal, Wallumattagal and Wategora Aboriginal peoples, they used the river as an important source of a place for trade. The headwaters of the Parramatta River are formed by the confluence of Darling Mills Creek and Toongabbie Creek.
The point of the confluence lies on the northern border of the grounds of Cumberland Hospital. It lies on the boundary of the suburbs of Westmead and North Parramatta. Waterways flowing into the Parramatta River, west–to–east include: Vineyard Creek at Rydalmere, from the north Ponds Subiaco Creek at Rydalmere, from the north Duck River at Silverwater, from the south Archer Creek at Meadowbank, from the north Smalls Creek at Meadowbank, from the far north Charity Creek at Meadowbank, from the north Haslams Creek at Homebush Bay, from the south Powells Creek at Homebush Bay, from the south Iron Cove Creek at Five Dock, from the south Hawthorne Canal at Iron Cove, from the south Tarban Creek at Huntleys Point, from the north Lane Cove River at Greenwich, from the north From its headwaters at Toongabbie, the river flows in a southerly direction through the grounds of Cumberland Hospital. Entering Parramatta Park, it turns west and flows through the Parramatta CBD. Both banks are open to the public, with parkland and walkways, downstream to James Ruse Drive.
The river is fed by a number of small creeks and stormwater drains. The waters are controlled by a series of weirs: the weir at the edge of the hospital grounds, the Kiosk Weir in Parramatta Park, the Marsden Street Weir, the Charles Street Weir at the ferry wharf; the weirs have been equipped with fish ladders. Kiosk Weir and Charles Street Weir include footbridges enabling a crossing of the river; the river was dammed to provide reservoirs for the town. However, the function of the weirs is aesthetic, preventing the water from draining away during dry periods; as a consequence the river floods in heavy rain at the Charles Street Weir. The Charles Street Weir forms the boundary between fresh water and salt water, is the limit of tides; the whole of Sydney Harbour including its tributary rivers is subject to a long range Catchment Management Plan. The Government has eliminated local representation by eliminating the former local catchment management boards; the New South Wales Government has a documented policy in relation to access to the harbour and river foreshores, including public access to intertidal lands where landowners have absolute waterfronts but where the waterfront is exposed at low tide.
Moorings and jetties are the responsibility of Roads and Maritime Services, who are responsible for the management of the Harbour and river seabed. Many bays contain swing moorings privately owned, but some associated with commercial marinas. Along the Parramatta River many hands have made lighter work, in the community-wide effort to make the entire river swimmable again by 2025, starting with the opening of Lake Parramatta in 2014. Thirteen councils sit within the Parramatta River catchment group and all have committed to tackling the two major polluters: sewer overflows and stormwater. There are River Cat services along the Parramatta River to Circular Quay; the main wharves, west–to–east are: The Parramatta River, along with Sydney Harbour, is the most significant waterway in Sydney. Since settlement, the river and the harbour have presented a formidable barrier between the early–European settled southern Farm Cove precinct, to development north of the waterway. Together, Parramatta River and Port Jackson cut Sydney in half along its north–south axis.
As a result, the many crossings are important to the life of the city. From west–to–east, the crossings of the Parramatta River are located at: Until 1970 the river was an open drain for Sydney's industry and the southern central embayments are contaminated with a range of heavy metals and chemicals; the Northern Bays are less affected as the Sydney Harbour Bridge was not completed until 1932 and so industrial development was well established on the southern side of the Harbour. Dr Gavin Birch of the University of Sydney has published a number of papers which show that Sydney Harbour is as contaminated as most other harbours in industrialised cities, that the main sediment contamination is in the southern central embayments, that there are five contaminated areas of Sydney Harbour, that four of them are in the Parramatta river system; the main contaminated areas of the Parramatta River are: Homebush Bay - dioxins, phthalates, DDT, PAHs originating from nearby chemical factories of Berger Paints, CSR Chemicals, ICI/Orica, Union Carbide.
Iron Cove - various metals and chemicals with no defined point source. Pollution may enter through Iron Cove Creek and Hawthorne Canal. Adjacent to the former AGL site, now
Murray Bridge, South Australia
Murray Bridge is a city in the Australian state of South Australia, located 76 kilometres east-southeast of the state's capital city, 77 kilometres north of the town of Meningie. The city had an urban population of 17,500 as at the 2016 Census making it the fifth most populous urban area in the state after Adelaide, Mount Gambier, Victor Harbor - Goolwa and Whyalla; the city was known as Mobilong and as Edwards Crossing, before being renamed as Murray Bridge in 1924. The city is situated on the Princes Highway, the main road transport link between Adelaide and Melbourne; the city services a farming area including dairy, chickens, cereal crops and vegetables. Murray Bridge is in the traditional lands of the Ngarrindjeri people, who refer to Murray Bridge as Pomberuk; the first European explorer was Charles Sturt who camped there on 8 February 1830. The first road bridge across the lower Murray was known as The Murray Bridge and completed at Edwards's Crossing in 1879; the bridge became a shared road and rail bridge in 1886 until the separate rail bridge was completed in 1925.
The bridge was designed for 1,067 mm rail track gauge though in actuality, only 1,600 mm gauge trains used it. The District Council of Mobilong was established in 1884 bringing local government to the township known as Mobilong, the surrounding land within the Hundred of Mobilong. By 1923, the council had absorbed the southern two thirds of the neighbouring Hundred of Burdett across the river, the Hundred of Ettrick further east, part of the Hundred of Brinkley to the south; the Mobilong township by had its own ward. The township seceded from Mobilong council in 1924, calling itself the Corporate Town of Murray Bridge renaming the township. In 1977 the two local councils recombined as the District Council of Murray Bridge. In 1979 the Swanport Bridge, carrying the South Eastern Freeway across the Murray River was completed 5 kilometres downstream, removing most through traffic from the historic Murray Bridge. In 1993 the local municipal council crossed a population threshold enabling it to be declared a city, the Rural City of Murray Bridge.
The bounded locality of Murray Bridge remained the majority population centre and seat of the city council. Murray Bridge contains a number of heritage-listed sites, including the Murray Bridge Transport Precinct, listed on the South Australian Heritage Register; as at the 2016 Census, the Murray Bridge area had a population of 20,858. The median age was 41, 21.7% of the population were born overseas. The median weekly household income was $973 per week, compared with the South Australian average of $1,206 per week; the urban area that contains and surrounds Murray Bridge had a population of 16,708 as at the 2011 census. In the 2006 census, the population was 14,048 and at the 2001 census, the population was 12,998. In the 2006 Census, 10.4% of the population were born overseas, 4.5% were Indigenous Australians. The median weekly household income was A$639 per week, compared with $924 in Adelaide. 13.3% of the population identified themselves as Lutheran, while a higher 24.7% identified with no religion.
In 1924 the Murray Bridge rowing team was chosen to represent Australia at the Paris Olympics. The Murray Cods as they were known won the Australian Eight Oared Championships and were invited to compete in a test race at Port Adelaide between South Australia, Western Australia and Victoria. Although accustomed to rowing over 3 miles, the Murray Cods were able to defeat the other crews on the 1 mile and 420 yards course; the story of their fund-raising and exploits in Paris are detailed on the Australian Rowing History website. Murray Bridge is home to "The Bunyip", a mechanical representation of the legendary water monster, located on Sturt Reserve. Many South Australian children fondly remember their first visit to the Bunyip, putting a coin in the machine and watching the Bunyip emerge from its watery cage complete with shrieking sound effects. Murray Bridge is home to the River Murray Football League, which plays Australian rules football; the league consists of the Murray Bridge-based clubs of Ramblers and Imperials and the district teams of Mypolonga, Tailem Bend and Meningie.
In 2005 the city's golf course, Murray Bridge Golf Club, held the State's premier regional junior team event, the Brett Ogle Cup. The home team went qualified for the state final, losing narrowly; the team had not experienced such success. Another sporting association in Murray Bridge is the Murray Bridge Amateur Swim Club which competes in meets with other clubs, as well as Country Championships and state and national championships. Murray Bridge is the home of the Murray Bridge Racing Club, Murray Bridge & District Table Tennis Association, holds the 24-hour Australian International Pedal Prix race annually in September. Murray Bridge Lutheran Tennis Club plays hard court tennis on their home courts based at Christian Reserve. Hard court tennis is hosted by various clubs throughout the community, including Jervois, Mannum and Tailem Bend as well as clubs within the township. Hard court tennis is played on both Friday Saturday mornings. There are senior divisions. Friday night tennis offers a social alternative offering barbecues and after-game drinks.
Lawn tennis is pla
Mervyn Wood
Mervyn Thomas "Merv" Wood, LVO, MBE, QPM was an Australian rower of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. He was an eight-time Australian national sculling champion, four-time Olympian and three-time Olympic medalist, he rose to become the Police Commissioner of the New South Wales Police Force. Wood was the youngest of four children born in New South Wales, his father Thomas Wood had emigrated to Australia and entered the Police Force in 1905. Wood grew up in Randwick and attended Sydney Boys High School, graduating in 1934, where he represented his school in rugby union and most rowing. Following High School graduation, Wood became a Police Cadet and rowed for the New South Wales Police Rowing Club; the police team was selected to represent Australia at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. At the age of 19 years, Wood appeared in his first Olympics, his boat did not make the final. Upon his return, Wood made police constable. After the majority of his crew retired, Wood took up sculling, he worked in the police force in the Criminal Investigation Branch, in 1944 joined the Royal Australian Air Force as a navigator.
After the end of World War II, Wood won State and National Championships in 1946, 1947 and 1948 and was selected to represent Australia in the single scull at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. Wood travelled to London ahead of the rest of the team and won the Diamond Challenge Sculls event at the Henley Royal Regatta, beating Bert Bushnell in the final. At the Olympics, Wood won all of his races handily including the final. Wood celebrated by smoking his pipe – he was a lifelong smoker who only put aside the habit for the Olympics. Wood went on to win the national single scull championship a record seven straight times, winning in 1949, 1950, 1951 and 1952. At the 1950 British Empire Games he won the single scull and with compatriot Murray Riley the double scull; as the 1948 Olympic Champion, Wood was awarded the Philadelphia Challenge Cup as the best amateur sculler in the world, which Wood defended in 1950, defeating John B. Kelly Jr. and Antony Rowe in a match race in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Wood represented Australia in the single scull event at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, where he was honoured by being selected to carry the Australian flag at the opening ceremony. On the journey to Finland, Wood stopped in England and repeated his victory at the Henley Royal Regatta in the Diamond Challenge Sculls, beating Tony Fox in the final. Wood was a favourite to win the single scull at the Olympics, but lost the final by 1.7 seconds to Yury Tyukalov. Although he never offered it as an excuse, as a child, Wood had injured his arm which caused him distress while rowing including during the summer of 1952; this may have affected his performance at the games, but Wood faced far stiffer competition than in the 1948 games, which were held shortly after World War II, his main rival Tyukalov would prove to be one of the best oarsmen of his generation. At the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, Wood rowed in both the coxless four and the double scull events; the finals were separated by only 45 minutes, Wood won gold medals in both events.
In 1956 Wood lost the national sculling title to teenager Stuart MacKenzie, selected ahead of Wood to represent Australia in the single scull at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. But Wood and his partner Riley were selected for the double scull. Among others in the final and Riley faced the Soviet team that included Yury Tyukalov, who had beaten Wood at the 1952 Games. Tyukalov's boat again triumphed, an American boat finished second, Wood's boat third, giving him a Bronze medal at age 39. Wood was again named the flag-bearer, the only Australian to have twice achieved the honour. Wood's final competition was the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, where teaming with MacKenzie he won silver in the double scull at age 41. Following his retirement from rowing, Wood returned full-time to his post in the New South Wales Police Force becoming the Commissioner in 1977, his double scull partner at the 1956 Olympics, Murray Riley, was a police officer. After leaving the force, Riley became an international drug smuggler.
Wood's link with Riley and the controversy it generated was a factor in causing him to quit as Commissioner in 1979. Another factor was a document prepared by senior police officers, given to a number of politicians, which alluded to a meeting between Wood and an "illegal casino operator" among other things; the Premier of New South Wales, Neville Wran, started by backing Wood, stating that it would be strange for a Police Commissioner not to know people in the underworld. Once the document surfaced, the public backlash forced Wran to take back his support for Wood. Wood died in Sydney on 19 August 2006 at age 89, he had been suffering from cancer. 1936, did not qualify for finals 1948, gold 1952, silver 1956, bronze 1950, gold 1950, gold 1954, Four w/out, gold 1954, gold 1958, silver 1948, Diamond Challenge Sculls, first place 1952, Diamond Challenge Sculls, first place Andrews, Malcolm. Australia at the Olympic Games. Sydney, New South Wales: ABC Books. ISBN 0-7333-0884-8. Howell, Max. Aussie Gold.
Albion, Queensland: Brooks Waterloo. ISBN 0-86440-680-0. Australian Olympic Committee Obituary Australian Olympic Committee Biography NY Times Underbelly website Obituary News.com.au Obituary Australian Rowing History Olympic Database
Brisbane River
The Brisbane River is the longest river in South East Queensland and flows through the city of Brisbane, before emptying into Moreton Bay. John Oxley, the first European to explore the river, named it after the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Thomas Brisbane in 1823; the penal colony of Moreton Bay adopted the same name becoming the present city of Brisbane. Early travellers along the waterway admired the natural beauty, abundant fish and rich vegetation along its banks. From 1862 the Brisbane River has been dredged for navigation purposes; the river served as an important carriageway between Brisbane and Ipswich before a railway linking the towns was built in 1875. By the late 1920s, water quality in the river had deteriorated; the river travels 344 km from Mount Stanley. The river is dammed by the Wivenhoe Dam, forming the main water supply for Brisbane; the waterway is a habitat for Brisbane River cod and bull sharks. The largest ship built on the river was the Robert Miller; the 66,000 tonne vessel became un-moored in the 1974 Brisbane flood.
While not the highest experienced along the river since European settlement, this flood was the most damaging. Major floods occurred in January 2011 and multiple times during 1893. Extensive port facilities have been constructed on the Fisherman Islands, now known as the Port of Brisbane. There are 16 major bridges; the Clem Jones Tunnel, opened in 2010, is the river's first underground crossing for road transport. The CityCat ferry service collects and delivers passengers along the inner-city reaches of the river. Brisbane River's source is located in the Great Dividing Range, east of Kingaroy, it makes its way south, past Mount Stanley, townships including Moore and Toogoolawah before being joined by the Stanley River, just south of Somerset Dam. The river runs from there into Lake Wivenhoe, created by the Wivenhoe Dam. Beyond the dam, the river meanders eastward, meeting the Bremer River near Ipswich making its way through Brisbane's western suburbs, including Jindalee and Toowong; the river is traversed by CityCats and other ferries in Brisbane, as it winds its way through the city centre.
Water from the highest point in the catchment has fallen from Mount Langley in the Conondale Range, 868 m above sea level. The Brisbane River flows past wharves including Pinkenba Wharf and Portside Wharf, past Bulwer Island and Luggage Point through the Port of Brisbane and into southern Bramble Bay an embayment of Moreton Bay. On the southern side of the river, opposite Gardens Point, are the Kangaroo Point Cliffs; the Kangaroo Point Cliffs were created by a quarrying operation that, according to Allan Cunninghams' Field Book, was underway prior to 1829 when he observed a "stone wharf used for landing the blocks of stone ferried across the river for the construction of buildings in the settlement". This was in the vicinity of Edward Street ferry terminal; the volcanic rock Ignimbrite which formed the cliffs was deposited in the Triassic period about 220 million years ago. They form the banks of the Brisbane River. A number of the reaches of the Brisbane River are named, including the following listed below, together with their location relative to tributaries of the river and river crossings: The following major tributaries flow into the Brisbane River from the north.
On the southside Bulimba Creek, Norman Creek, Oxley Creek, Bremer River and Lockyer Creek waterways enter the Brisbane River. The following smaller creeks flow into the river. Before European settlement, the Brisbane River was spiritually important and a vital food source for the Aboriginal people of the Turrbal nation through fishing in the tidal sections downstream, with fishing and firestick farming in the upper reaches where there was freshwater, depending on the season; the language group common to most of the area was the Yugarabul language group. Four European navigators, namely Captain Cook, Matthew Flinders, John Bingle and William Edwardson, all visited Moreton Bay but failed to discover the river; the exploration by Flinders took place during his expedition from Port Jackson north to Hervey Bay in 1799. He spent a total of 15 days in the area, touching down at Woody Point and several other spots, but failed to discover the mouth of the river although there were suspicions of its existence.
This is consistent with accounts of many other rivers along the east coast of Australia, which could not be found by seaward exploration but were discovered by inland travellers. On 21 March 1823, four ticket-of-leave convicts sailing south from Sydney on a timber getting mission to Illawarra, Thomas Pamphlett, John Finnegan, Richard Parsons and John Thompson were blown north by a storm, they went 21 days without water, continuing north in the belief they had been blown south, during which time Thompson died. They landed on Moreton Island on 16 April and made it to the mainland on the south of the Brisbane River, they began trekking north in order to return to Sydney, still believing themselves to be somewhere south of Jervis Bay. Subsequently, they became the first known Europeans to discover the river, stumbling across it somewhere near the entrance, they walked upstream along its banks for nearly a month before making their first crossing at'Canoe Reach', the junction of Oxley Creek. It was here they stole a small canoe left by the
Rowing (sport)
Rowing referred to as crew in the United States, is a sport whose origins reach back to Ancient Egyptian times. It involves propelling a boat on water using oars. By pushing against the water with an oar, a force is generated to move the boat; the sport can be either recreational for enjoyment or fitness, or competitive, when athletes race against each other in boats. There are a number of different boat classes in which athletes compete, ranging from an individual shell to an eight-person shell with a coxswain. Modern rowing as a competitive sport can be traced to the early 10th century when races were held between professional watermen on the River Thames in London, United Kingdom. Prizes were offered by the London Guilds and Livery Companies. Amateur competition began towards the end of the 18th century with the arrival of "boat clubs" at the British public schools of Eton College, Shrewsbury School, Westminster School. Clubs were formed at the University of Oxford, with a race held between Brasenose College and Jesus College in 1815.
At the University of Cambridge the first recorded races were in 1827. Public rowing clubs were beginning at the same time. In 1843, the first American college rowing club was formed at Yale University; the International Rowing Federation, responsible for international governance of rowing, was founded in 1892 to provide regulation at a time when the sport was gaining popularity. Across six continents, 150 countries now have rowing federations. Rowing is one of the oldest Olympic sports. Though it was on the programme for the 1896 games, racing did not take place due to bad weather. Male rowers have competed since the 1900 Summer Olympics. Women's rowing was added to the Olympic programme in 1976. Today, there are fourteen boat classes which race at the Olympics: Each year the World Rowing Championships are staged by FISA with 22 boat classes that race. In Olympic years, only the non-Olympic boat classes are raced at the World Championships; the European Rowing Championships are held annually, along with three World Rowing Cups in which each event earns a number of points for a country towards the World Cup title.
Since 2008, rowing has been competed at the Paralympic Games. Major domestic competitions take place in dominant rowing nations and include The Boat Race and Henley Royal Regatta in the United Kingdom, the Australian Rowing Championships in Australia, the Harvard–Yale Regatta and Head of the Charles Regatta in the United States, Royal Canadian Henley Regatta in Canada. Many other competitions exist for racing between clubs and universities in each nation. While rowing, the athlete sits in the boat facing toward the stern, uses the oars which are held in place by the oarlocks to propel the boat forward; this may be done on a canal, lake, sea, or other large bodies of water. The sport requires strong core balance, physical strength and cardiovascular endurance. Whilst the action of rowing and equipment used remains consistent throughout the world, there are many different types of competition; these include endurance races, time trials, stake racing, bumps racing, the side-by-side format used in the Olympic games.
The many different formats are a result of the long history of the sport, its development in different regions of the world, specific local requirements and restrictions. There are two forms of rowing: In sweep or sweep-oar rowing, each rower has one oar, held with both hands; this is done in pairs and eights. In some regions of the world, each rower in a sweep boat is referred to either as port or starboard, depending on which side of the boat the rower's oar extends to. In other regions, the port side is referred to as stroke side, the starboard side as bow side. In sculling each rower has two oars, one in each hand. Sculling is done without a coxswain, in quads, doubles or singles; the oar in the sculler's right hand extends to port, the oar in the left hand extends to starboard. The rowing stroke may be characterized by two fundamental reference points; the catch, placement of the oar blade in the water, the extraction known as the finish or release, when the rower removes the oar blade from the water.
The action between catch and release is the first phase of the stroke. At the catch the rower places the blade in the water and applies pressure to the oar by pushing the seat toward the bow of the boat by extending the legs, thus pushing the boat through the water; the point of placement of the blade in the water is a fixed point about which the oar serves as a lever to propel the boat. As the rower's legs approach full extension, the rower pivots the torso toward the bow of the boat and finally pulls the arms towards his or her chest; the hands meet the chest right above the diaphragm. At the end of the stroke, with the blade still in the water, the hands drop to unload the oar so that spring energy stored in the bend of the oar gets transferred to the boat, which eases removing the oar from the water and minimizes energy wasted on lifting water above the surface; the recovery phase follows the drive. The recovery starts with the extraction and involves coordinating the body movements with the goal to move th
