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37-512: The Gulf Plains Important Bird Area comprises 8868 km of the low-lying coastal plains bordering the south-eastern corner of the Gulf of Carpentaria in north-west Queensland , Australia . It was identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because of its importance to global populations of waders and other birds. Most of the region is crown land leased for cattle grazing . There are also permanent fishing camps on

74-415: A quarter meant one-quarter of a fathom. A cable length , based on the length of a ship's cable, has been variously reckoned as equal to 100 or 120 fathoms. Most modern nautical charts indicate depth in metres. However, the U.S. Hydrographic Office uses feet and fathoms. A nautical chart will always explicitly indicate the units of depth used. To measure the depth of shallow waters, boatmen used

111-435: A sounding line containing fathom points, some marked and others in between, called deeps , unmarked but estimated by the user. Water near the coast and not too deep to be fathomed by a hand sounding line was referred to as in soundings or on soundings . The area offshore beyond the 100 fathom line, too deep to be fathomed by a hand sounding line, was referred to as out of soundings or off soundings . A deep-sea lead ,

148-423: A "simple orguia" ( ἁπλὴ ὀργυιά , haplē orguiá ) roughly equivalent to the old Greek fathom (6 Byzantine feet , c.  1.87   m ) and an "imperial" ( βασιλικὴ , basilikē ) or "geometric orguia" ( γεωμετρικὴ ὀργυιά , geōmetrikē orguiá ) that was one-eighth longer (6 feet and a span , c.  2.10   m). One fathom is equal to: In the international yard and pound agreement of 1959

185-533: A large, shallow lake occupied the centre of what is now the Gulf. The Gulf hosts a submerged coral reef province that was only recognised in 2004. Yulluna (also known as Yalarnga, Yalarrnga, Jalanga, Jalannga, Wonganja, Gunggalida, Jokula) is an Australian Aboriginal language . The Yulluna language region includes the local government boundaries of the Shire of Cloncurry . Kayardild (also known as Kaiadilt and Gayadilta)

222-535: A line from Slade Point, Queensland (the northwestern corner of Cape York Peninsula ) in the northeast, to Cape Arnhem on the Gove Peninsula , Northern Territory (the easternmost point of Arnhem Land ) in the west. At its mouth, the Gulf is 590 km (370 mi) wide, and further south, 675 km (420 mi). The north-south length exceeds 700 km (430 mi). It covers a water area of about 300,000 km (120,000 sq mi). The general depth

259-562: A multiple of the imperial yard . Formerly, the term was used for any of several units of length varying around 5– 5 + 1 ⁄ 2 feet (1.5–1.7 m). The term (pronounced / ˈ f æ ð ə m / ) derives (via Middle English fathme ) from the Old English fæðm , which is cognate with the Danish word favn (via the Vikings) and means "embracing arms" or "pair of outstretched arms". It

296-527: A well-watered coastal strip, a fairly narrow band of mountains, and then a vast, inward-draining plain that receives little rainfall. In the Gulf Country, however, there are no mountains to restrict rainfall to the coastal band and the transition from the profuse tropical growth of the seaside areas to the arid scrubs of central Australia is gradual. In September and October the Morning Glory cloud appears in

333-401: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Gulf of Carpentaria The Gulf of Carpentaria ( / k ɑːr p ən ˈ t ɛər i ə / ) is a sea off the northern coast of Australia . It is enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea , which separates Australia and New Guinea . The northern boundary is generally defined as

370-548: Is a language of the Gulf of Carpentaria. The Kayardild language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of the Mornington Shire Council . The first European explorer to visit the region (and Australia) was the Dutch Willem Janszoon (whose name is also written as Jansz) in his 1605–06 voyage . His fellow countryman, Jan Carstenszoon (or Carstensz ), visited in 1623 and named

407-401: Is between 55 and 66 metres (30 and 36 fathoms ) with a maximum depth of 69 metres (38 fathoms). The tidal range in the Gulf of Carpentaria is between two and three metres (6.5 and 10 ft). The Gulf and adjacent Sahul Shelf were dry land at the peak of the last ice age 18,000 years ago when global sea level was around 120 m (390 ft) below its present position. At that time

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444-432: Is hot and humid with two seasons per year. The dry season lasts from about April until November and is characterized by very dry southeast to east winds, generated by migratory winter high pressure systems to the south. The wet season lasts from December to March. Most of the year's rainfall is compressed into these months, and during this period, many low-lying areas are flooded. The Gulf is prone to tropical cyclones during

481-507: Is maybe also cognate with the Old High German word "fadum", which has the same meaning and also means "yarn (originally stretching between the outstretched fingertips)". The Ancient Greek measure known as the orguia ( Ancient Greek : ὀργυιά , orgyiá , lit .   "outstretched") is usually translated as "fathom". By the Byzantine period , this unit came in two forms:

518-501: Is occasionally used: 1 ⁄ 1000 nautical mile or 1 ⁄ 100 cable length . A burial at sea (where the body is weighted to force it to the bottom) requires a minimum of six fathoms of water. This is the origin of the phrase " to deep six" as meaning to discard, or dispose of. The phrase is echoed in Shakespeare's The Tempest , where Ariel tells Ferdinand , " Full fathom five thy father lies". Until early in

555-411: Is part of the larger East Australian Basins physiographic division. 14°S 139°E  /  14°S 139°E  / -14; 139 Fathom There are two yards (6 feet ) in an imperial fathom. Originally the span of a man's outstretched arms , the size of a fathom has varied slightly depending on whether it was defined as a thousandth of an (Admiralty) nautical mile or as

592-617: The United States , Australia , Canada , New Zealand , South Africa , and the United Kingdom defined the length of the international yard to be exactly 0.9144 metre . In 1959 United States kept the US survey foot as definition for the fathom. In October 2019, the U.S. National Geodetic Survey and the National Institute of Standards and Technology announced their joint intent to retire

629-504: The wet season (December to March) much of the area is flooded when the rivers overflow their banks. The rivers are fringed with paperbark woodlands. The floodplain vegetation consists of grassy eucalypt woodlands as well as open-woodlands dominated by Eucalyptus microtheca . The freshwater grasslands are dominated by species of Dichanthium , while floodplain depressions contain Oryza grasslands that are important for birds. Along

666-424: The 20th century, it was the unit used to measure the depth of mines (mineral extraction) in the United Kingdom . Miners also use it as a unit of area equal to 6 feet square (3.34 m ) in the plane of a vein. In Britain, it can mean the quantity of wood in a pile of any length measuring 6 feet (1.8 m) square in cross section. In Central Europe , the klafter was the corresponding unit of comparable length, as

703-559: The Gulf. Zinc, lead and silver is mined from the McArthur River zinc mine and exported via the Gulf. Another zinc mine, Century Zinc is in the gulf on the Queensland side of the border. It exports its product through the port facility at Karumba . The cattle industry is also a very important part of the regional economy in the gulf. According to the then Chairman of the Gulf of Carpentaria's Commercial Fisherman's Organisation, Gary Ward,

740-520: The Southern Gulf. The best vantage point to see this phenomenon is in the Burketown area shortly after dawn. It has been hypothesized that the Gulf experienced a major asteroid impact event in 536 AD. The Gulf of Carpentaria is known to contain fringing reefs and isolated coral colonies, but no near-surface patch or barrier reefs exist in the Gulf at the present time. However, this has not always been

777-744: The Top End, the Roper River , Walker River and Wilton River flow into the Gulf. The Cox River , Calvert River , Leichhardt River , McArthur River , Flinders River , Norman River and the Gilbert River drain the Gulf Country. A number of rivers flow from the Cape York Peninsula into the Gulf, including Smithburne River , Mitchell River , Alice River , Staaten River , Mission River, Wenlock River , and Archer River . Extensive areas of seagrass beds have allowed commercial shrimp operations in

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814-561: The U.S. survey foot, with effect from the end of 2022. The fathom in U.S. Customary units is thereafter defined based on the International 1959 foot, giving the length of the fathom as exactly 1.8288 metres in the United States as well. The British Admiralty defined a fathom to be a thousandth of an imperial nautical mile (which was 6080 ft) or 6.08 feet (1.85 m). In practice the "warship fathom" of exactly 6 feet (1.8 m)

851-743: The case. Expeditions carried out by Geoscience Australia in 2003 and in 2005 aboard the RV ; Southern Surveyor revealed the presence of a submerged coral reef province covering at least 300 km (120 sq mi) in the southern Gulf. The patch reefs have their upper surfaces at a mean water depth of 28.6 ± 0.5 m (94 ± 1.5 ft), were undetected by satellites or aerial photographs, and were only recognised using multibeam swath sonar surveys supplemented with seabed sampling and video. Their existence points to an earlier, late Quaternary phase of framework reef growth under cooler-climate and lower sea level conditions than today. In

888-668: The coast, tidal inlets are fringed with mangrove forests , while the salt flats support low shrublands and patchy grasslands. The IBA supports large populations of sarus cranes and over 1% of the world populations of brolgas , Australian bustards , black-tailed godwits , great knots , eastern curlews , sharp-tailed sandpipers , lesser sand plovers , grey-tailed tattlers , little curlews , pied oystercatchers , broad-billed sandpipers , red-necked stints and black-winged stilts . 17°01′50″S 140°41′37″E  /  17.03056°S 140.69361°E  / -17.03056; 140.69361 This Queensland location article

925-727: The gulf in honour of Pieter de Carpentier , at that time the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies . Abel Tasman also explored the coast in 1644. The region was later explored and charted by the English navigator Matthew Flinders in 1802 and 1803. The first overland expedition to reach the Gulf was the Burke and Wills expedition , led by Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills which left Melbourne , Victoria in August 1860 and reached

962-468: The heaviest of sounding leads, was used in water exceeding 100 fathoms in depth. This technique has been superseded by sonic depth finders for measuring mechanically the depth of water beneath a ship, one version of which is the Fathometer (trademark). The record made by such a device is a fathogram . A fathom line or fathom curve , a usually sinuous line on a nautical chart, joins all points having

999-509: The major estuaries . The IBA contains saline mudflats , grasslands , freshwater wetlands and woodlands in an area stretching along the coast from west of Burketown to north of the mouth of the Mitchell River . It is where several river systems – including the Mitchell, Gilbert , Norman , Flinders , Leichhardt and Nicholson Rivers - meet the shallow Gulf of Carpentaria. During

1036-409: The middle, was used to take fish from a larger seine . A line attached to a whaling harpoon was about 150 fathoms (900 ft; 270 m). A forerunner — a piece of cloth tied on a ship's log line some fathoms from the outboard end — marked the limit of drift line. A kite was a drag, towed under water at any depth up to about 40 fathoms (240 ft; 73 m), which upon striking bottom,

1073-791: The mouth of the Bynoe River in February 1861. However, both men died on the return journey. The land bordering the Gulf is generally flat and low-lying. To the west is Arnhem Land and Groote Eylandt , the largest island in the Gulf. To the east is the Top End of the Northern Territory, including the Cape York Peninsula , and the Torres Strait which joins the Gulf to the Coral Sea . The area to

1110-524: The number of sightings of Indonesian vessels fishing illegally in the gulf's waters increased in early 2005. By 2011, the numbers of illegal fishing boat interceptions had declined significantly with the cause attributed to enforcement efforts and education programs in Indonesia. In 2012, a major new port located to the west of Karumba and rail connection to the North West Minerals Province

1147-418: The period between November and April. The gulf experiences an average of three cyclones each year that are thought to transport sediments in a clockwise direction along the Gulf's coast. In many other parts of Australia, there are dramatic climatic transitions over fairly short distances. The Great Dividing Range , which parallels the entire east and south-east coast, is responsible for the typical pattern of

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1184-569: The same depth of water, thereby indicating the contour of the ocean floor. Some extensive flat areas of the sea bottom with constant depth are known by their fathom number, like the Broad Fourteens or the Long Forties , both in the North Sea . The components of a commercial fisherman's setline were measured in fathoms. The rope called a groundline , used to form the main line of a setline,

1221-509: The south (like the Cape York Peninsula, part of Queensland) is known as the Gulf Country . The Gulf Country supports the world's largest intact savanna woodlands as well as native grasslands, known as the Carpentaria tropical savanna . The woodlands also extend up the west and east coast of the Gulf. They are dominated by Eucalyptus and Melaleuca species from the family Myrtaceae. The climate

1258-578: Was proposed by Carpentaria Rail. The advantages of a port at Karumba compared to Townsville was that it was three or four days closer to Asia via shipping routes. Additionally, expansion is taking place of the Bing Bong Port which services the McArthur River zinc mine , awarded the Northern Territory Earth award. The Gulf is one of the distinct physiographic sections of the larger (and surrounding) Carpentaria Basin province, which in turn

1295-457: Was upset and rose to the surface. A shot , one of the forged lengths of chain joined by shackles to form an anchor cable, was usually 15 fathoms (90 ft; 27 m). A shackle , a length of cable or chain equal to 12 + 1 ⁄ 2 fathoms (75 ft; 22.9 m). In 1949, the British navy redefined the shackle to be 15 fathoms (90 ft; 27 m). The Finnish fathom ( syli )

1332-593: Was used in Britain and the United States. No conflict between the definitions existed in practice, since depths on imperial nautical charts were indicated in feet if less than 30 feet (9.1 m) and in fathoms for depths greater than that. Until the 19th century in England, the length of the fathom was more variable: from 5 + 1 ⁄ 2  feet on merchant vessels to either 5 or 7 feet (1.5 or 2.1 m) on fishing vessels (from 1.7 to 1.5 or 2.1 m). At one time,

1369-469: Was usually provided in bundles of 300 fathoms. A single 50-fathom (300 ft; 91 m) skein of this rope was referred to as a line . Especially in Pacific coast fisheries the setline was composed of units called skates , each consisting of several hundred fathoms of groundline, with gangions and hooks attached. A tuck seine or tuck net about 70 fathoms (420 ft; 130 m) long, and very deep in

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