Rivers
The King River which cuts through the West Coast Range and the Gordon River empty into Macquarie Harbour. The narrow entrance to Macquarie Harbour has hazardous tidal currents and is called Hell's Gates. Outside of the Harbour the entrance area is known as Macquarie Heads, and the most western point is Cape Sorell. The sheer volume of fresh water that pours into the Harbour through the rivers, combined with the narrow exit result in barometric tides. When there is rain in the mountains surrounding the Harbour, the tide rises, and it falls when the atmospheric pressure reverses and results in less rain.
The Queen River, King River and Macquarie Harbour were all polluted by mine waste from the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company until its closing in 1994. It is estimated that 100 million tonnes of tailings were disposed of into the Queen River. The Mount Lyell Remediation and Research and Demonstration Program was carried out by the office of Supervising Scientist and the Tasmanian Department of Environment and Land Management over the following two years. The result of the program a marked reduction in the waste material entering the rivers and harbour.
Read more about this topic: Macquarie Harbour
Famous quotes containing the word rivers:
“As for evildoers, for them awaits a painful chastisement;
but for those who believe, and do deeds
of righteousness, they shall be admitted
to gardens underneath which rivers flow,
therein dwelling forever,
by the leave of their Lord, their greeting
therein: “Peace!””
—Qur’An. Abraham 14:28 (ed. Arthur J. Arberry, 1955)
“He who hears the rippling of rivers in these degenerate days will not utterly despair.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, then we remembered Zion.”
—Bible: Hebrew Psalm CXXXVII (l. CXXXVII, 1)