Gulf of Carpentaria
A shallow rectangular inlet of the Arafura Sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia, the Gulf of Carpentaria lies south of a 590-kilometre line between Cape York Peninsula's northwestern corner (Slade Point) and Cape Arnhem on the Gove Peninsula. It covers an area of approximately 300,000 square kilometres and has a mean depth of around 60 metres.
At the peak of the last ice age (approximately 18,000 years BP), when global sea levels were around 120 metres below present levels, the Gulf and adjacent Sahul Shelf were dry land, with a large, shallow lake occupying the centre.
The land bordering the Gulf is generally flat and low-lying, supporting the world's most significant intact savanna woodlands and native grasslands dominated by eucalyptus and melaleuca species from the family Myrtaceae. As the plains approach the sea, they merge into a belt of salt flats, which reach their widest extent just west of the Flinders River.
The Gulf is prone to tropical cyclones from November to April and experiences an average of three cyclones per year. It may have experienced a significant asteroid impact event in 536 CE.
More than twenty rivers drain into the Gulf, winding profusely in their lower courses, often with extensive deltas:
- from the Top End, they include the Roper and Walker;
- from the south, they include the Cox, Calvert, Leichhardt, McArthur, Flinders, Norman and Gilbert River;
- from Cape York Peninsula, they include the Mitchell, Alice, Staaten, Mission, Wenlock and Archer.
- Groote Eylandt, located 50 kilometres east of the Northern Territory coast (the most significant island).
- the Wellesley Islands, including Mornington Island, about 444 kilometres north of Mount Isa and 28 kilometres off the coast of Queensland;
- the Sir Edward Pellew Group off the Northern Territory coast in the Gulf's southwest corner.
The first European to visit the Gulf was the Dutch Willem Jansz in 1606. Subsequent visitors include Jan Carstensz (1623), who named the gulf after Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies Pieter de Carpentier, Abel Tasman (1644), and Matthew Flinders (1802 and 1803). The first overland expedition to reach the Gulf, led by Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills, reached the mouth of the Bynoe River in February 1861. Both leaders died on the return journey.
While the area was neglected until well into the 20th century, prawn fishing on the Gulf's extensive seagrass beds made Karumba a significant fishing centre. Large-scale mining activities extracting bauxite, manganese and zinc have given the Gulf international significance, and the cattle industry remains an integral part of the regional economy.
