Tributaries
A tributary as a river or stream that flows into a main stream, river or lake; a tributary never flows directly into the ocean. Where these two streams meet is generally called the conflux. Most large rivers are formed from the runoff and snowmelt of many tributaries (National Geographic. 2014). The image below from Geoscience Australia (2014) shows the Murray Darling Basin, and all of the tributaries flowing into the Murray River. As shown, major tributaries include the Darling river (flowing from New South Wales and Queensland, including tributaries flowing into the Darling such as Moonie river and Castlereach river), the Murrumbidgee river, and the Goulburn river. The formation of tributaries depends on features of the landscape such as climate, geology, altitude and rainfall.