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River

Cooper Creek

1,300 km from source to mouth · Australia.

AustraliaAustraliaFlows into Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre5th longest in Australia

Follow the riverMonth by month

SourceMouth
The river and every tributary in its basin, drawn from RiverATLAS (CC BY 4.0).

In numbers

Length

1,300km

Average flow

82m³/s

Basin

297,547km²

Drop

197m

from 182 m to -15 m

Country

1

The journey

From source to mouth

1,300 km of river and 7 stops on the way: 0 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

182 m-15 m
Sourceat 182 m0 km
Thomson Rivertributary257 km
Barcoo Rivertributary257 km
Boggy Lake6.8 km²832 km
Lake Coogiecooginna7.5 km²880 km
Lake Pandruannie1.7 km²1,016 km
Lake Killamperpunna15 km²1,053 km
Kati Thanda–Lake Eyreat -15 m1,300 km
05001,0001,300 km
  1. 0 kmSourceat 182 m
  2. 257 kmThomson Rivertributary
  3. 257 kmBarcoo Rivertributary
  4. 832 kmBoggy Lake6.8 km²
  5. 880 kmLake Coogiecooginna7.5 km²
  6. 967 kmLake Appadare1.4 km²
  7. 1,016 kmLake Pandruannie1.7 km²
  8. 1,053 kmLake Killamperpunna15 km²
  9. 1,300 kmKati Thanda–Lake Eyreat -15 m

Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.

Australian river

At the mouth it carries 82 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 30 seconds. It drops from 182 m to -15 m, 0.2 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 297,547 km², about the size of PH. 9,894 people live in it. Highest water: from March to April; lowest: from September to December. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

  • From April to June and from August to SeptemberThe best months to visit

Cooper Creek, month by month

Highest water: from March to April

Lowest water: from September to December. Best months to visit: from April to June and from August to September.

100
30°37 mmJan
190
30°36 mmFeb
230
27°28 mmMar
220
22°16 mmApr
180
18°18 mmMay
120
14°11 mmJun
95
13°14 mmJul
71
15°8 mmAug
23
19°7 mmSep
18
24°15 mmOct
0.0
27°13 mmNov
15
29°19 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 0.0 m³/s in the lowest month to 230 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.

Plan the trip

Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

The basin

Cooper Creek: the basin in numbers

245,844 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

Free-flowingDams upstream can hold only 0.0% of a year's flow: the river still keeps its natural rhythm.
  • 9,894people live in the basin
  • 0/km²people per km²
  • 216maverage altitude of the basin
  • 368mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 22.6°Caverage air temperature
  • 3%protected areas
  • 0.1%covered by lakes

What covers the basin

  • 2% Forest
  • 76% Pasture

RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.

Along the river

Cooper Creek: what you find on the way

  • 1Dams

From OpenStreetMap, within 2.6 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Cooper Creek in our other atlases

What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.

  • 5lakes on its wayLakeyas

Lakes and reservoirs (5)

Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas

  1. Boggy Lakekm 8576.8km²
  2. Lake Coogiecooginnakm 9077.5km²
  3. Lake Appadarekm 9961.4km²
  4. Lake Pandruanniekm 1,0461.7km²
  5. Lake Killamperpunnakm 1,08515km²

Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Cooper Creek: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Cooper Creek: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth68 km across

Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.

Photos

Cooper Creek in pictures

Tributaries

Where it flows, and what flows into it

Tributaries (3)

Also: Barcoo River, Thomson River, Strzelecki Creek

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q432278) · CC0
Course, profile, basinRiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point given by Wikidata
FlowWaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Climate along the riverWorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Towns, bridges, damsWikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0
Along the river© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Our other atlasesLakeyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST

Every source and licence is on the data sources page.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.

beachesCoastyaFind your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit
lakesLakeyasEvery lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit
mountainsPeakyasEvery summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit
waterfallsCascadyasEvery waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit
islandsIslandyasEvery island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit
riversRiveryasEvery river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyonsCanyonyasEvery canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit