Description of Telemetered Gauging Station

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Station Number: G9030176

Station Name: Roper River at Downstream Mataranka Homestead

This site is located 9 km (by river) downstream of Mataranka Homestead. It was established in June 1961 as part of a program to investigate the water resources in the Northern Territory. It has since been incorporated into the Departments’ Flood Warning Telemetry Network, providing near ‘real time’ river height and rainfall data. This data is available for the prediction of flood events that may effect down stream communities such as Djilkminggan and Elsey.

The instrumentation at the site measures rainfall and river height. The river height is recorded in metres, to a local gauge datum (GD), but is also available in Australian Height Datum (AHD). This data is relayed back to the Departments’ Hydrographic unit in Darwin via telemetry.

The Roper River at this site has a base flow of approximately 2 m3/s, (Cumecs) maintained through the dry season by local spring flows. The largest event recorded at this site was in March 2000, reading 9m on the gauge. The highest known gauge height of the river was 11.27 m (from surveyed flood marks) in January 1998, which destroyed the original instrumentation. Top of bank at this site is approximately 9.5 m.

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