Normanby River
From headwaters in the Great Dividing Range west of Wujal Wujal, the Normanby River system — the East and West Normanby Rivers, the East Normanby River North and South Branches, and the Granite Normanby River (a.k.a. the Norman-Laura Catchment and Norman Sub-Basin) flows generally north-northwest through savanna grassland and the Rinyirru National Park to discharge into Princess Charlotte Bay around 170 kilometres northwest of Cooktown.
After its East and West Branches combine, the river is joined by sixteen more tributaries:
Deep Creek
Nigger Creek
Banana Creek
Beardmore Creek
Troopers Creek
Puckley Creek
Clayhole Creek
Trap Creek
Bull Creek
Bridge Creek
Battle Camp Creek
Cabbage Tree (Welcome) Creek
Brown Creek
Laura River
Jack River
Kennedy River
Near its mouth, the Normanby forms a large delta, which, in the absence of roads, remains almost inaccessible during the dry season.
The river's 24,408 square-kilometre catchment includes the settlements of Lakeland, Laura, and Lakefield, several homesteads, and remote communities, including their Pandanus Park Vietnam Veterans Retreat. The Normanby basin is almost entirely grazing beef cattle on large stations, worked mainly by Aborigines.
William Hann named the river in honour of Queensland's third Governor, George Phipps, 2nd Marquess of Normanby, in September 1872.
