Mossman River

Mossman
River
The Mossman River during the wet season, 2010
Name origin: In honour of Hugh Mosman
Country	Australia
State	Queensland
Regions	Far North Queensland, Cape York Peninsula
City	Mossman
Landmark	Mossman Gorge
Source	Great Dividing Range
- location	below Devil's Thumb
- elevation	1,050 m (3,445 ft)
- coordinates
Mouth	Trinity Bay, Coral Sea
- location	between Newell and Cooya Beach
- elevation	0 m (0 ft)
- coordinates
Length	24 km (15 mi)
Basin	472 km2 (182 sq mi)
National park	Daintree National Park
Location of Mossman River mouth in Queensland
Wikimedia Commons: Mossman River

The Mossman River is a river located in the Cape York Peninsula of Far North Queensland, Australia.

The headwaters of the river rise under Devil's Thumb on the Mount Carbine Tableland in the Great Dividing Range. The river flows through a deeply incised valley in the Mount Lewis Forest Reserve in an easterly direction and then through the Mossman Gorge, part of the Daintree National Park, and onto the coastal plain past the township of Mossman, where the river is crossed by the Captain Cook Highway. The river eventually discharges into Trinity Bay and the Coral Sea between Newell and Cooya Beach. The river descends 1,050 metres (3,440 ft) over its 24-kilometre (15 mi) course.

The river has a catchment area of 472 square kilometres (182 sq mi) of which an area of 16 square kilometres (6 sq mi) is composed of estuarine wetlands.

The river was named by the explorer George Dalrymple in 1873 after Hugh Mosman who discovered gold in Charters Towers. Dalrymple wrote "I named this river the Mossman River, after Mossman, an explorer and mining man, member of a very prominent mining family".

See also

• List of rivers of Queensland