What is the Gulf of Carpentaria?
The Gulf of Carpentaria is a large, shallow sea in northern Australia, lying between Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory and Cape York Peninsula in Queensland.
The gulf covers about 300,000 square kilometres and opens into the Arafura Sea. It was named after Pieter de Carpentier, a governor-general of the Dutch East India Company, after Dutch explorers charted it in the 1600s.
Many rivers flow into the gulf, and its coast is lined with mangroves, mudflats and wetlands. The region is home to crocodiles, dugongs and sea turtles, and supports an important prawn fishery.
The Morning Glory
Near the town of Burketown, a rare cloud called the Morning Glory sometimes rolls across the sky in spring. These tube-shaped clouds can stretch for hundreds of kilometres, and glider pilots travel to ride them.
Towns such as Karumba, Normanton and Weipa sit near the gulf. Karumba is popular with anglers chasing barramundi, and Weipa is a major bauxite mining centre.
Did You Know?
Explorers Burke and Wills reached the mangroves near the gulf in 1861 but could not see the open sea.