Anybody who has driven or flown across the Roper Gulf Shire knows how big it is. Horizon to horizon, from the Gulf of Carpentaria to west of the Stuart Highway, from just north of Elliott to the southern edge of Kakadu, from the Queensland border to 100 kls from the East Arnhem coast, which ever way you view it Roper Gulf covers a huge area. Here is a couple of measures to demonstrate how large.
- Roper Gulf Shire has a land area of 186000 square kilometres. As a comparison this is 2.7 times larger than Tasmania (68401 sq. kls) and 80% of the total land mass of Victoria. (227416 sq. kls.)
- On a world scale, Roper Gulf Shire has a larger land mass than 160 of the worlds 249 nation states. Roper Gulf shire is larger than Greece, Nepal, Ireland, Sri Lanka and Norway and the two Koreas, to mention a just a few.
- Four main roads cross the Shire, the Stuart Highway in the west, and three highways, east west, the Central Arnhem, Roper and Carpentaria with a combined length of over 1500 kls. Other main roads within the Shire cover over 1100 kls.
- There is well over 700 kls of coast line on the Gulf of Carpentaria.
- Five major river systems cross the Shire, the Limmen, Macarthur, Roper, Rose and Robinson Rivers. The combined annual flow of these rivers is in excess of 11750 gig litres or about 23 Sydney Harbours of water.
- The Katherine and Edith, Fergusson, East Alligator, Mann and King Rivers also have their headwaters in the Shire.
The size of Roper Gulf Shire produces its own unique problems with communication and logistics but in turn has produced some unique solutions which will be featured in coming editions. And where else in Australia or world can you find the beauty and serenity of wide savannah plains, big rivers, coastlines and tropical forests and escarpments, a rich human history going back 60,000 years and a vibrant future.
For further details please direct your inquiries to Michael Berto, CEO Roper Gulf Shire Council on 08 8972 9000.
ENDS