Bulloo River

Bulloo River
Bulloo River in flood at Adavale, Queensland
Country	Australia
State	Queensland
Municipality	Shire of Bulloo
City	Adavale, Thargomindah
Source	Grey Range, Idalia National Park
- location	western Queensland
- elevation	290 m (951 ft)
Mouth	Bulloo Lake (ephemeral)
Length	600 km (373 mi)
Basin	75,534 km2 (29,164 sq mi)
Discharge
- average	20 m3/s (706 cu ft/s) (River usually dry)

The Bulloo River is an isolated drainage system in western Queensland, central Australia. Its floodplain, which extends into northern New South Wales, is an important area for waterbirds when inundated. It comprises most of the Bulloo-Bancannia drainage basin.

The Bulloo is the only river in the region not part of either the Murray–Darling basin or the Lake Eyre basin; instead it flows into several ephemeral lakes which are blocked by low hills from reaching the Lake Frome, the Paroo River or the Lake Bancannia systems. In its lowest reaches, which extend to near Tibooburra, New South Wales, is the distributary known as Bella Creek. It is believed that in past wet periods the Bulloo has had connections to Lake Frome because its fish fauna resembles that of the Lake Eyre basin rather than that of the Murray–Darling basin. Several tributaries flow into the Bulloo in its upper reaches, the largest being Blackwater Creek. Ranges of low hills prevent the lower reaches of the Bulloo from receiving significant tributaries.

Hydrologically, the Bulloo is very similar to the Darling River and Cooper Creek. It is usually completely dry except for water holes, but during years of strong monsoonal activity in the summer the Bulloo can flood heavily to discharges of more than 1000 m³/s, and annual flows of up to five times the mean. In dry years annual rainfall can be as low as 100mm (4 inches) throughout the basin and years of zero runoff are not unknown.

Annual rainfall throughout the basin ranges from 330 mm (13 inches) in the north to 200 mm (8 inches) in the south, with the northward increase being due to higher falls in the summer. In the winter, rainfall is rare throughout the basin, with the average between April and October generally around 115 mm (4.5 inches), though on extremely rare occasions such as 1920-1921 and 1956 the river has had a significant flood during the winter. The basin was flooded in the March 2010 Queensland floods and again in the floods of early 2012.