Lake Eyre Basin Rivers 196 Tablelands of the Northern Territory before flowing through a complex system of rivers, creeks and floodplain wetlands. These include the Burke and Hamilton Rivers, near Boulia, and King Creek. The Georgina River becomes Eyre Creek immediately south of the confluence of the Eyre and King Creeks, some of the flow enters the short Cuttaburra Creek distributary which discharges water to Lake Machattie to the east and Lakes Mipia and Koolivoo to the west, while Eyre Creek continues westward through the Simpson Desert sandhills and then south, joining the Mulligan River and eventually turning east again to join the Diamantina River in Goyder’s Lagoon (see Chapter 1). The combined Diamantina River and Eyre Creek flows can then move into Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre through the Warburton Creek outflow from Goyder’s Lagoon. The Diamantina River’s tributaries include the Western River, the Mayne River and Farrars Creek above Birdsville. The Hay River is a separate subcatchment on the western side of the Georgina–Diamantina Basin, rarely contributing flow to the Georgina–Diamantina Basin or Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre. There is a long and ongoing history of pressure to develop the rivers of the Lake Eyre Basin (see Chapter 1). Initially, this primarily focused on pastoral development, followed by Longreach Windorah TTZ AZ UBZ LBZ CZ TZ Fig. 20.1. Queensland part of the Cooper Creek catchment of the Lake Eyre Basin, showing major rivers and creeks (blue), lakes (filled blue), towns and the Nappa Merrie flow gauge (triangle) and water planning zones (orange dashed lines): Alice Zone (AZ), Cooper Zone (CZ), Longreach Waterhole Relocation Zone (LBZ), Thomson Zone (TZ), Torrens Towerhill Zone (TTZ) and Upper Barcoo Zone (UBZ).