Daly River (Northern Territory)

The traditional owners of the river and surrounding area are the Wadjigiynk, Maranunngu, Malak Malak, Kamu, Warai, Nanggiwumerri, Wagiman, Wardaman, Dagoman, Jawoyn, Matngala, and Yangman peoples.^[6]

Boyle Travers Finniss named the river after Sir Dominick Daly, the Governor of South Australia, as the Northern Territory was at that time part of South Australia.^[8] The region then lay untouched by Europeans until 1882 when copper was discovered.

Settlement on the river is centred on the Aboriginal community of Nauiyu, originally the site of a Catholic mission from 1955 to 1977,^[9] as well as the town of Daly River itself, at the river crossing a few kilometres to the south.^[10]

The Daly River Copper Mine was established after a rich copper lode was discovered at Mt Haywood along the Daly River in 1882. Woolwonga people killed four mine workers Johannes Noltenius, John Landers, Thomas Schollert and Henry Roberts on 3 September 1884. This triggered the Coppermine massacres led by the mine manager Sachse with a police party, led by George Montagu, that saw over 150 people killed, decimating the Malak-Malak and Woolwonga people.^[11] After a history of boom to bust and multiple lease turnovers the mine closed for good in 1925.^[12]

The river also supports cattle, with the Daly River Cattle Station starting up in 1985, now Tipperary Station.^[12]

The Daly River is popular location for tourism and recreational fishing due to its large barramundi.^[13] It hosts two major fishing competitions annually, the "Barra Classic" and the "Barra Nationals". Both occur just after the wet season when the flooded river is falling fast, and clear water is pouring in off the floodplains which is thought to be the best time for fishing.^[14][15]

The Daly is also the site of a proposed large-scale cotton industry harvesting up to 500 gigalitres of flood waters. This would come under the Oolloo Dolostone Aquifer Water Allocation Plan that has already been overallocated by the Northern Territory Government.^[16][6][17]

Like other rivers of the top end, the Daly is prone to seasonal flooding. Major flood events devastated the town of Daly River in 1899 and 1957, causing widespread property damage. The largest flood event post colonisation was in 1998, when floodwaters were fed by heavy rainfall in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Les reaching a peak of 16.25 m (53.3 ft) at the Daly River Police Station gauge, the highest level recorded to date. There were also flooding events triggering evacuations in 2000, 2018, 2023 and 2024.^[18][19]

Mean annual discharge of the Daly River at Mount Nancar (period from 1971 to 2021) and Dorisvale Crossing (period from 1966 to 2021):^[3][4]