CHANNEL COUNTRY

pastoral region situated primarily in southwestern Queensland, Australia, but extending slightly into northeastern South Australia and northwestern New South Wales. The region's area of 60,000 square miles (155,000 square km) includes flat alluvial terrain that is drained by the Georgina, Thomson, Diamantina, and Barcoo rivers and by Cooper Creek. Its name is from the many channels the rivers have cut in their floodplains during times of high water. After the annual flood, which sometimes lasts for six months, nutritious grasses appear, and the land becomes excellent for cattle grazing. The region was first opened to pastoralists in 1877; the development of beef roads, to carry trains of linked cattle trucks, has enabled the area to develop as a cattle-raising area.