What is a billabong?
A billabong is an Australian word for an oxbow lake or pool of water left behind when a river changes course, or a stagnant backwater connected to a river. Billabongs often fill during floods and dry out in drought.
The word comes from the Wiradjuri language of central New South Wales. It is usually explained as combining billa, meaning river or creek, and bong, meaning dead or dying.
Billabongs form when a river meanders across a floodplain. Over time, a bend in the river may be cut off, leaving a separate pool of water.
Billabongs in culture
Billabongs appear in Banjo Paterson's poem Waltzing Matilda, in which a swagman camps by a billabong under the shade of a coolibah tree.
They are important for wildlife, providing water and habitat for fish, birds, frogs and turtles. In northern Australia, billabongs in places such as Kakadu are home to crocodiles and water birds.
The word is also used as the name of the surfwear brand Billabong, founded on the Gold Coast. Many billabongs are threatened by changes to river flows and farming, and they are a valued part of the Australian landscape.