Barcoo River

Barcoo River
Barcoo River at Tambo, 2012
Country	Australia
State	Queensland
Part of	Cooper Creek, Lake Eyre basin
City	Blackall, Isisford, Tambo, Queensland
Source	Warrego Range
- location	east of Tambo, Central Queensland
Mouth	confluence with the Thomson River
- location	north of Windorah
Map of the Lake Eyre Basin showing Barcoo River

The Barcoo River in western Queensland, Australia rises on the northern slopes of the Warrego Range, flows in a south westerly direction and unites with the Thomson River to form Cooper Creek. The first European to see the river was Thomas Mitchell in 1846, who named it Victoria River, believing it to be the same river as that named Victoria River by J C Wickham in 1839. It was renamed by Edmund Kennedy after a name supplied by local Aborigines.

The waters of the river flow towards Lake Eyre in central Australia while those of rivers further east join the Murray-Darling basin and reach the sea in South Australia. The river forms a boundary between outback Australia and the "Far Outback"; legend has it that west of the Barcoo there is very little in the way of civilisation.

Tributaries include the Alice River, Torrens, Landsborough and Towerhill Creeks. Towns situated on the banks of the Barcoo River include Blackall, Isisford, Tambo and Retreat. The southern boundary of Welford National Park is marked by the Barcoo River and Isisford Weir has been constructed on the Barcoo.

Barcoo Grunter, also known as Jade Perch (Scortum barcoo), is a native Australian freshwater fish found in the eastern Northern Territory rivers of Limmen, Roper, Macarthur; the Barkley Basin, and between the Gilbert River in Northern Queensland and the Lake Eyre drainage of central Australia. Barcoo Grunther is an excellent food fish, and is often farmed in intensive grow-out ponds or tanks in aquaculture.