River
Murrumbidgee River
1,488 km from source to mouth · Australia.
AustraliaFlows into Murray River2nd longest in Australia
In numbers
Length
1,488km
Average flow
140m³/s
Basin
81,630km²
Drop
1,213m
from 1,269 m to 56 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
1,488 km of river and 32 stops on the way: 5 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 1,269 m
- 32 kmTantangara Reservoir3.0 km²
- 174 kmBredbo Rivertributary
- 248 kmGudgenby Rivertributary
- 251 kmTharwa Bridge
- 265 kmTuggeranong Creektributary
- 268 kmTuggeranong89,461 people
- 268 kmLake Tuggeranong0.6 km²
- 270 kmKambah14,900 people
- 289 kmCotter Rivertributary
- 289 kmCotter Storage Reservoir0.4 km²
- 289 kmCotter Bridge
- 305 kmMolonglo Rivertributary
- 314 kmGinninderra Creektributary
- 359 kmTaemas Bridge
- 362 kmCavan47 people
- 380 kmYass Rivertributary
- 414 kmGoodradigbee Rivertributary
- 422 kmLake Burrinjuck17 km²
- 521 kmTumut Rivertributary
- 544 kmPrince Alfred Bridge
- 544 kmMurrumbidgee River railway bridge, Gundagai
- 546 kmSheahan Bridge
- 664 kmEunony Bridge
- 670 kmMurrumbidgee River Railway Bridge
- 671 kmWagga Wagga67,364 people
- 673 kmHampden Bridge
- 673 kmWiradjuri Bridge
- 677 kmGobbagombalin Bridge
- 870 kmGogeldrie Weir
- 910 kmDarlington Point1,162 people
- 1,009 kmCarrathool Bridge over Murrumbidgee River
- 1,256 kmLachlan Rivertributary
- 1,488 kmMurray Riverat 56 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in New South Wales, Australia
At the mouth it carries 145 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 17 seconds. It drops from 1,269 m to 56 m, 0.8 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 81,630 km², about the size of AE. 682,000 people live in it. Highest water: from July to October. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 119% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- TuggeranongLargest city on its banks · 89,461 people
- Canberra Airport (CBR)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 17 km from the cityCar hire at CBR airport (Canberra)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water22 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe15 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From November to MarchThe best months to visit
Murrumbidgee River, month by month
Highest water: from July to October
Best months to visit: from November to March.
From about 78 m³/s in the lowest month to 260 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
Murrumbidgee River: the basin in numbers
120,393 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 682,000people live in the basin
- 6/km²people per km²
- 379maverage altitude of the basin
- 610mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 15.2°Caverage air temperature
- 7%protected areas
- 0.3%covered by lakes
- 5.4km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 15% Forest
- 21% Cropland
- 41% 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
Murrumbidgee River: what you find on the way
- 48WeirsIsabella weir, Berembed Weir, Yanco Weir and 45 more
- 3WaterfallsLower Ginninderra Falls, Ginninderra Falls
- 15Rapids
- 22Boat rampsBurrinjuck Waters Boat Ramp, Rocky Waterholes Boat Ramp, Darlington Point Boat Ramp (New) and 19 more
- 9River beachesTuggeranong Town Park Beach, Nguru, Mundang and 6 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.4 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Murrumbidgee River 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.
4lakes on its wayLakeyas
14mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (4)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Tantangara Reservoirkm 243.0km²
- Lake Tuggeranongkm 2000.6km²
- Cotter Storage Reservoirkm 2150.4km²
- Lake Burrinjuckkm 31417km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (14)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Tom O'Rourkes Peak7.6 km away
- Bogong Peaks14 km away
- Black Hill10 km away
- Black Mountain11 km away
- Circuits Mountain11 km away
- Mount Nattung14 km away
- Michelago Peak12 km away
- Mount Jackson9.1 km away
6 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
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
Murrumbidgee River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Murray RiverAustralia2,530 km770 m³/sTributaries (19)
Also: Molonglo River, Cotter River, Tumut River, Gudgenby River, Yass River, Bredbo River, Goodradigbee River, Tuggeranong Creek, Numeralla River, Ginninderra Creek, Tarcutta Creek, Adjungbilly Creek, Bowning Creek, Burra Creek, Cooma Back Creek, Jugiong Creek, Kindra Creek, Cullinga Creek
In the same basin
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q475597) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Lakeyas, Peakyas — 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.
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