Arafura Swamp
Encyclopedia
The Arafura Swamp is a large inland freshwater
wetland
in Arnhem Land
, in the Top End
of the Northern Territory
of Australia
. It is a near pristine floodplain
with an area of 700 km2 that may expand to 1300 km2 by the end of the wet season, making it the largest wooded swamp in the Northern Territory and, possibly, in Australia. It has a strong seasonal variation in depth of water. The area is of great cultural significance to the Yolngu
people, in particular the Ramingining community
. It was the filming location
for the film
Ten Canoes
.
60–100 m in height, with prominent scarp
s to the east and west. The eastern scarp contains the Arafura Jungles
site. It is laced with drainage channels and billabong
s and forms a major flood-control and sedimentation basin for the Goyder-Glyde river system, with the main inflow coming from the Goyder and Gulbuwangay Rivers in the south, and with discharge northwards through the Glyde River into the Arafura Sea
. It has a monsoon
al tropical savanna climate
with a mean annual rainfall
of over 1000 mm, falling mostly from December to April. In dry years much of the swamp lacks free standing water during the dry season
. The average annual increase in water depth over the wet season
is nearly two metres, with refilling starting in January and reaching its greatest depth in April.
, with over 100 species of grass
es, herbs
, aquatics
, sedge
s and tree
s recorded. Most of the swamp is covered by low forest
and woodland
over grassland
, with the dominant tree species being the paperbarks Melaleuca cajuputi and Melaleuca leucadendra
.
The swamp is classified as an Important Bird Area
. It is a major breeding area for Magpie Geese. Other abundant waterbirds include Wandering Whistling Duck
s, Pacific Black Duck
s and Green Pygmy Geese
. There are breeding colonies of Royal Spoonbill
s, Little Pied
and Little Black Cormorant
s, and Darter
s. Land adjacent to the swamp supports one of the largest breeding populations of the Hooded Parrot
outside the Katherine
area.
Large numbers of fruit bat
s feed and roost in the extensive paperbark forests. The Threadfin Rainbowfish
, once known only from New Guinea
and the Cape York Peninsula
, has been discovered in the swamp. It is also an important breeding site for Freshwater
and Saltwater Crocodile
s.
from the Ramingining community use the swamp for fishing
, hunting and gathering
, including harvesting the eggs
of geese and crocodiles. The margins of the swamp are used for grazing
livestock
. The swamp is one of very few tropical wetlands in Australia continuing to be managed by Aboriginal people using traditional land management practices, including formal burning regimes. Traditional use of the swamp was studied by anthropologist
Donald Thomson
in the 1930s. Much of the 2006 film Ten Canoes was filmed on location in the swamp with many of the actors deriving from the local community and speaking in Yolŋu Matha.
Land tenure
of the swamp is Aboriginal freehold, held by the Arnhem Land Aboriginal Land Trust. The Arafura wetlands, with their catchment
area, are listed on the Register of the National Estate
.
Freshwater
Fresh water is naturally occurring water on the Earth's surface in ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, bogs, ponds, lakes, rivers and streams, and underground as groundwater in aquifers and underground streams. Fresh water is generally characterized by having low concentrations of dissolved salts and...
wetland
Wetland
A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....
in Arnhem Land
Arnhem Land
The Arnhem Land Region is one of the five regions of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around 500 km from the territory capital Darwin. The region has an area of 97,000 km² which also covers the area of Kakadu National...
, in the Top End
Top End
The Top End of northern Australia is the second northernmost point on the continent. It covers a rather vaguely-defined area of perhaps 400,000 square kilometres behind the northern coast from the Northern Territory capital of Darwin across to Arnhem Land with the Indian Ocean on the west, the...
of the Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. It is a near pristine floodplain
Floodplain
A floodplain, or flood plain, is a flat or nearly flat land adjacent a stream or river that stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls and experiences flooding during periods of high discharge...
with an area of 700 km2 that may expand to 1300 km2 by the end of the wet season, making it the largest wooded swamp in the Northern Territory and, possibly, in Australia. It has a strong seasonal variation in depth of water. The area is of great cultural significance to the Yolngu
Yolngu
The Yolngu or Yolŋu are an Indigenous Australian people inhabiting north-eastern Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. Yolngu means “person” in the Yolŋu languages.-Yolŋu law:...
people, in particular the Ramingining community
Ramingining, Northern Territory
Ramingining is an Indigenous community in the Northern Territory, Australia, 560 km east of Darwin. It is on the edge of the Arafura Swamp in Arnhem Land...
. It was the filming location
Filming location
A filming location is a place where some or all of a film or television series is produced, in addition to or instead of using sets constructed on a movie studio backlot or soundstage...
for the film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
Ten Canoes
Ten Canoes
Ten Canoes is a 2006 film. It was directed by Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr and starred Crusoe Kurddal. The title of the film arose from discussions between de Heer and David Gulpilil about a photograph of ten canoeists poling across the Arafura Swamp, taken by anthropologist Donald Thomson in...
.
Geography and climate
The Arafura Swamp is a large and irregular floodplain surrounded by a low plateauPlateau
In geology and earth science, a plateau , also called a high plain or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain. A highly eroded plateau is called a dissected plateau...
60–100 m in height, with prominent scarp
Escarpment
An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that occurs from erosion or faulting and separates two relatively level areas of differing elevations.-Description and variants:...
s to the east and west. The eastern scarp contains the Arafura Jungles
Arafura Jungles
The Arafura Jungles form a site with an area of about 5000 ha in eastern Arnhem Land, in the Top End of the Northern Territory of Australia. It contains twelve patches of monsoon vine forest of areas varying from 1.5 ha to 50 ha, representing four distinct floristic types, in the sandstone...
site. It is laced with drainage channels and billabong
Billabong
Billabong is an Australian English word meaning a small lake, specifically an oxbow lake, a section of still water adjacent to a river, cut off by a change in the watercourse. Billabongs are usually formed when the path of a creek or river changes, leaving the former branch with a dead end...
s and forms a major flood-control and sedimentation basin for the Goyder-Glyde river system, with the main inflow coming from the Goyder and Gulbuwangay Rivers in the south, and with discharge northwards through the Glyde River into the Arafura Sea
Arafura Sea
The Arafura Sea lies west of the Pacific Ocean overlying the continental shelf between Australia and New Guinea.-Geography:The Arafura Sea is bordered by Torres Strait and through that the Coral Sea to the east, the Gulf of Carpentaria to the south, the Timor Sea to the west and the Banda and Ceram...
. It has a monsoon
Monsoon
Monsoon is traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation, but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with the asymmetric heating of land and sea...
al tropical savanna climate
Tropical savanna climate
Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a type of climate that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories "Aw" and '"As."...
with a mean annual rainfall
Rain
Rain is liquid precipitation, as opposed to non-liquid kinds of precipitation such as snow, hail and sleet. Rain requires the presence of a thick layer of the atmosphere to have temperatures above the melting point of water near and above the Earth's surface...
of over 1000 mm, falling mostly from December to April. In dry years much of the swamp lacks free standing water during the dry season
Dry season
The dry season is a term commonly used when describing the weather in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which oscillates from the northern to the southern tropics over the course of the year...
. The average annual increase in water depth over the wet season
Wet season
The the wet season, or rainy season, is the time of year, covering one or more months, when most of the average annual rainfall in a region occurs. The term green season is also sometimes used as a euphemism by tourist authorities. Areas with wet seasons are dispersed across portions of the...
is nearly two metres, with refilling starting in January and reaching its greatest depth in April.
Flora and fauna
The Arafura Swamp contains 25 distinct plant communitiesBiocoenosis
A biocoenosis , coined by Karl Möbius in 1877, describes the interacting organisms living together in a habitat . This term is rarely used in English, as this concept has not been popularized in Anglophone countries...
, with over 100 species of grass
Grass
Grasses, or more technically graminoids, are monocotyledonous, usually herbaceous plants with narrow leaves growing from the base. They include the "true grasses", of the Poaceae family, as well as the sedges and the rushes . The true grasses include cereals, bamboo and the grasses of lawns ...
es, herbs
Herbaceous plant
A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground...
, aquatics
Aquatic plant
Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments. They are also referred to as hydrophytes or aquatic macrophytes. These plants require special adaptations for living submerged in water, or at the water's surface. Aquatic plants can only grow in water or in soil that is...
, sedge
Sedge
- Plants :* Acorus calamus, sweet flag, a plant in the Acoraceae family* Any of the plants in the family Cyperaceae- Animals :* A collective noun for several species of birds, including bitterns, cranes and herons* Sedge-fly, caddisfly- Other uses :...
s and tree
Tree
A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
s recorded. Most of the swamp is covered by low forest
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...
and woodland
Woodland
Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...
over grassland
Grassland
Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses and other herbaceous plants . However, sedge and rush families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica...
, with the dominant tree species being the paperbarks Melaleuca cajuputi and Melaleuca leucadendra
Melaleuca leucadendra
Melaleuca leucadendra is a tree belonging to the Melaleuca genus. The common name, Cajuput Tree, is derived from the Malay word kayu putih - meaning "white wood".-Description:...
.
The swamp is classified as an Important Bird Area
Important Bird Area
An Important Bird Area is an area recognized as being globally important habitat for the conservation of bird populations. Currently there are about 10,000 IBAs worldwide. The program was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife International...
. It is a major breeding area for Magpie Geese. Other abundant waterbirds include Wandering Whistling Duck
Wandering Whistling Duck
The Wandering Whistling Duck is a species of whistling duck. They inhabit tropical and subtropical Australia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands . There are three subspecies associated with this bird. D. arcuata arcuata , D. arcuata australis , and D...
s, Pacific Black Duck
Pacific Black Duck
The Pacific Black Duck is a dabbling duck found in much of Indonesia, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and many islands in the southwestern Pacific, reaching to the Caroline Islands in the north and French Polynesia in the east. It is usually called the Grey Duck in New Zealand...
s and Green Pygmy Geese
Green Pygmy Goose
The Green Pygmy Goose is a small perching duck which breeds in southern New Guinea and northern Australia.First described in 1842 by the ornithologist John Gould, its specific name is derived from diminutive of the Latin adjective pulcher "pretty". It is one of three species in the Afro-Asian...
. There are breeding colonies of Royal Spoonbill
Royal Spoonbill
The Royal Spoonbill, Platalea regia, also known as the Black-billed Spoonbill, occurs in intertidal flats and shallows of fresh and saltwater wetlands in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands. It has also been recorded as a vagrant in New Caledonia...
s, Little Pied
Little Pied Cormorant
The Little Pied Cormorant, Little Shag or Kawaupaka is a common Australasian waterbird, found around the coasts, islands, estuaries, and inland waters of Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Indonesia, and around the islands of the south-western Pacific and the sub-Antarctic...
and Little Black Cormorant
Little Black Cormorant
The Little Black Cormorant is a member of the cormorant family of seabirds. It is common in smaller rivers and lakes throughout most areas of Australia and northern New Zealand. It is around sixty centimetres long, and is all black with blue-green eyes.-References: Database entry includes...
s, and Darter
Darter
The darters or snakebirds are mainly tropical waterbirds in the family Anhingidae. There are four living species, three of which are very common and widespread while the fourth is rarer and classified as near-threatened by the IUCN. The term "snakebird" is usually used without any additions to...
s. Land adjacent to the swamp supports one of the largest breeding populations of the Hooded Parrot
Hooded Parrot
The Hooded Parrot, Psephotus dissimilis is a medium-sized, up to 26cm long, turquoise blue parrot with black head, green wing, brown back and greenish blue-bronze tail feathers edged with white. It has pale grey beak, greyish brown legs and brown eye...
outside the Katherine
Katherine, Northern Territory
Katherine is a town situated southeast of Darwin in the "Top End" of Australia in the Northern Territory. It is the fourth largest settlement in the Territory after the capital Darwin, Palmerston and Alice Springs...
area.
Large numbers of fruit bat
Megabat
Megabats constitute the suborder Megachiroptera, family Pteropodidae of the order Chiroptera . They are also called fruit bats, old world fruit bats, or flying foxes.-Description:...
s feed and roost in the extensive paperbark forests. The Threadfin Rainbowfish
Threadfin rainbowfish
The threadfin rainbowfish or featherfin rainbowfish, Iriatherina werneri, is a rainbowfish, the only species in the genus Iriatherina...
, once known only from New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
and the Cape York Peninsula
Cape York Peninsula
Cape York Peninsula is a large remote peninsula located in Far North Queensland at the tip of the state of Queensland, Australia, the largest unspoilt wilderness in northern Australia and one of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth...
, has been discovered in the swamp. It is also an important breeding site for Freshwater
Freshwater Crocodile
The freshwater crocodile , also known as the Australian freshwater crocodile, Johnston's crocodile or colloquially as freshie, is a species of reptile endemic to the northern regions of Australia...
and Saltwater Crocodile
Saltwater Crocodile
The saltwater crocodile, also known as estuarine or Indo-Pacific crocodile, is the largest of all living reptiles...
s.
Cultural use
Aboriginal peopleIndigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
from the Ramingining community use the swamp for fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
, hunting and gathering
Hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...
, including harvesting the eggs
Egg (biology)
An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing...
of geese and crocodiles. The margins of the swamp are used for grazing
Grazing
Grazing generally describes a type of feeding, in which a herbivore feeds on plants , and also on other multicellular autotrophs...
livestock
Livestock
Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...
. The swamp is one of very few tropical wetlands in Australia continuing to be managed by Aboriginal people using traditional land management practices, including formal burning regimes. Traditional use of the swamp was studied by anthropologist
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
Donald Thomson
Donald Thomson
Donald Fergusson Thomson, OBE was an Australian anthropologist and ornithologist who was largely responsible for turning the Caledon Bay crisis into a "decisive moment in the history of Aboriginal-European relations." He is remembered as a friend of the Yolngu people, and as a champion of...
in the 1930s. Much of the 2006 film Ten Canoes was filmed on location in the swamp with many of the actors deriving from the local community and speaking in Yolŋu Matha.
Land tenure
Land tenure
Land tenure is the name given, particularly in common law systems, to the legal regime in which land is owned by an individual, who is said to "hold" the land . The sovereign monarch, known as The Crown, held land in its own right. All private owners are either its tenants or sub-tenants...
of the swamp is Aboriginal freehold, held by the Arnhem Land Aboriginal Land Trust. The Arafura wetlands, with their catchment
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
area, are listed on the Register of the National Estate
Register of the National Estate
The Register of the National Estate is a listing of natural and cultural heritage places in Australia. The listing was initially compiled between 1976 and 2003 by the Australian Heritage Commission. The register is now maintained by the Australian Heritage Council...
.