River or Creek?

[MoparKevUk]

What defines if a waterway is a river or creek?

TIA!

[noname]

the same as highway or main road!

brisbane river, brekky creek.

pacific highway, kingsford smith drive.

[nadders]

dont think its anything special kev just the size of the waterway in question

[tomca]

just to be painful :evil: baffle creek is pretty massive compared to Albert River.

[Bluevien]

I always thought a creek was smaller than a river as it branches of a river and didn't branch off to anything else. But a quick look on any map can prove this wrong. I guess it all comes down to whatever someone names it? Like Schultz canal... is it really a canal and what is a canal?

[jeff f]

doesnt a creek have a shallow estuary at its mouth and a river doesnt

thats why baffle is classed as a creek not a river

[Angus]

I think there is a little naming license when it comes to geography.

FGor example some things called Mountains here (Mt Cootha) dont even get a mention as a hill in some places.

Angus

[tomca]

jeff f wrote:

doesnt a creek have a shallow estuary at its mouth and a river doesnt

thats why baffle is classed as a creek not a river

Breakfast Creek has a deep mouth, Brunswick River is shallow. This thread could get ugly:P

[noname]

it's actually called kedron brook floodway

[Tybo]

A canal is a man made waterway. That's an easy one, don't know about the rest.

[davefishmad]

I reckon Rivers are usually 4th order and creeks are 2 and 3rd order, streams are first order.

weather it is named River or creek, if it runs to the sea or does not tribute to a larger river it will be a 4th order classification.

but it seems there are a lot of ways to classify a river if you google it.

These days some classify rivers by their cultural surroundings (urbanization for example),I guess it depends on what your trying to look at.

If it called a creek its a creek, if its a River it is a river, the name doesn't really classify the tributary/river/creek/

dave