Black River (Queensland)

The Black River is a river in North Queensland, Australia.

The headwaters of the river rise near Ben Lomond East in the Great Dividing Range and flow in a northeasterly direction. The river flows roughly parallel with the Hervey Range Developmental Road past Mount Cataract and Mount Black on the Bohle Plains. The river is crossed by the Bruce Highway near Kulburr and discharges into the Coral Sea between Yabulu and Beach Holm approximately 10 km north west of Townsville.

The river descends 84 m over its 33 km course. The catchment area occupies 1060 km2, including 36 km2 of riverine wetlands and 10.6 km2 of estuarine wetlands.

A total of 22 species of fish have been found in the river, including the glassfish, Roman nose Goby, Fly-specked hardyhead, Golden Gudgeon, Jungle Perch, Barramundi, oxeye herring, eastern rainbowfish, spotted scat, and Crescent Perch.

The river is named after John Melton Black who was a pastoralist, merchant and a settler of Townsville. The outer Townsville suburb of Black River is named after the river which flows through northern side of the area.

The Alice River is a tributary of the Black River with a confluence at -19.25°N, 146.63306°W. The river is the western boundary of the Townsville suburb of Alice River.