Tweed River (New South Wales) Information & Tweed River (New South Wales) Links at HealthHaven.com

	Tweed
	River
	View of Tweed River Mouth and Duranbah
Country	Australia
State	New South Wales
Region	North Coast
Mouth	Point Danger
Basin	1,080 km2 (417 sq mi)

The Tweed River is a short river in the North Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. Its drainage basin consists mostly of the erosion caldera of the Tweed Volcano, a huge extinct volcano of which Mount Warning is the volcanic plug. The branches of the river join at Murwillumbah and flow about 20 kilometres northeast to Tweed Heads where they enter the sea.

The total catchment size of the Tweed River is 1080 km2.^[1] The watershed is bordered by the McPherson Range, Burringbar Range, Condong Range and Tweed Range.^[1]

The Tweed River area has a fine subtropical climate, high rainfall and fertile volcanic soils. It was originally covered by rainforest, much of which has been cleared. Some remains in several national parks and reserves. The lowlands along the river are used for farming sugar cane and other crops.

The Tweed was named after the River Tweed and forms part of the border between Queensland and New South Wales. Even though parts of the river are a few kilometres within the New South Wales side of the border, the expression "North of the Tweed" is used to refer to the people and places of Queensland; likewise, "South of the Tweed" is a term used by Queenslanders regarding the southern states of Australia. The term probably originates from southern Australians' summer vacation trips driving along the Pacific Highway through the scenic New South Wales North Coast. The highway crosses many rivers along its route, with the Tweed being the last one before reaching the holiday destinations of the Gold Coast, just on the other side of the Queensland border.

Upper Tweed Valley

The surrounding Tweed Shire is also a Local Government Area of New South Wales.

[edit] Course

The river begins northwest of the village called Lillian Rock. The upper reaches pass through the small villages of Kunghur, Terragon and Uki.^[2] South of Mount Warning Doon Doon Creek which is dammed by the Clarrie Hall Dam and Perch Creek enter the Tweed from its southern banks and Byrill Creek joins on the northern side near Terragon. Downstream Korumbyn Creek and then at Byangum the larger Oxley River enters the river, before it flows through Murwiilumbah.^[2] At Tumbulgum the Rous River joins the Tweed.

Upper Tweed Valley showing the caldera wall

[edit] Mouth

There is a sand bypassing system operating at the mouth of the Tweed River. A jetty on the northern end of Letitia Spit that collects sand and then pumps it under the Tweed River to beaches in the neighbouring state of Queensland. Outlets for the Tweed River Entrance Sand Bypassing System include Duranbah Beach, Snapper Rocks East, Snapper Rocks West, Greenmount and Kirra. Dredging of the navigation entrance is also undertaken regularly as part of the overall sand bypassing program.