The Jardine River, formally known as Deception River, is the largest river of the Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland, Australia.
The headwaters of the river rise southwest of Helby Hill in the Great Dividing Range and flow in a north westerly direction parallel to the McHenry River through the Apudthama National Park. The McHenry eventually discharges into the Jardine, which continues north west combining with multiple other tributaries as it flows into the flatlands of the Jardine Swamps. It eventually discharges into Endeavour Strait near Van Spoult Head opposite Prince of Wales Island and into the northern waters of the Gulf of Carpentaria, part of the Coral Sea.
Unlike other tropical rivers in Northern Australia, the Jardine flows all year round as the catchment receives sufficient rainfall throughout the year for it to do so.
The river is long 162 km and its catchment occupies an area of 3,282 square kilometres of mostly uninhabited country; some 219 square kilometres of the catchment is made up of mostly freshwater wetlands. The river has a mean annual discharge of 2,190 gigalitres.
A total of 46 species of fish are found in the river, including sailfin glassfish, Macleay\’s glassfish, barred grunter, marbled eel, hardyhead, pennyfish, mouth almighty, goby, empire gudgeon, barramundi, oxeye herring, northern trout gudgeon, seven-spot archerfish and banded rainbowfish.
