The Thomson River is situated in western Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, and forms part of the Lake Eyre Basin

Lake Eyre Basin

The Lake Eyre basin is a drainage basin that covers just under one-sixth of all Australia. The Lake Eyre Basin is the largest endorheic basin in Australia and amongst the largest in the world, covering about 1,200,000 square kilometres, including much of inland Queensland, large portions of South...

. The river was named by the explorer, Edmund Kennedy

Edmund Kennedy

Edmund Besley Court Kennedy was an explorer in Australia in the mid nineteenth century. He was the Assistant-Surveyor of New South Wales, working with Sir Thomas Mitchell...

, in the 1840s.

The northernmost headwaters of the river begin as Torrens Creek, inland from Charters Towers

Charters Towers, Queensland

Charters Towers is a city in northern Queensland, Australia. It is located 137 kilometres inland from Townsville on the Flinders Highway. In 2006 the population was 7,979 people, some 450 fewer than in the 2001 census. During the last quarter of the 19th century the town boomed as the rich gold...

. The watercourse becomes the Thomson just north of the town of Muttaburra

Muttaburra, Queensland

Muttaburra is a small grazing town located in central western Queensland, Australia. The town is located on the banks of the Thomson River, approximately north of the town of Longreach and north of Aramac. Muttaburra is located within the Barcaldine Region...

, where the channels of Landsborough Creek, Towerhill Creek and Cornish Creek meet. Aramac Creek joins the river from the east, south of Muttaburra and Maneroo Creek flows from the west, joining the Thomson south of Longreach. Just to the west of Longreach the river is crossed by the Landsborough Highway

Landsborough Highway

Landsborough Highway is a western Queensland highway running in the northwest-southeast direction from Morven to Cloncurry. The Landsborough Highway runs through vast tracts of land that was once occupied by William Landsborough, an Australian explorer of the 19th century...

.

The river continues in a south westerly direction, passing the towns of Longreach, Stonehenge

Stonehenge, Queensland

Stonehenge is a small outback township in western Queensland, Australia. Its name originates from when the area was a stopping point for bullock teams...

 and Jundah

Jundah, Queensland

Jundah is a town in far western Queensland, Australia. The administrative centre of the Barcoo Shire Local Government Area, the town is located on the Thomson River, west of the state capital, Brisbane. At the 2006 census, Jundah had a population of 93....

, before joining with the Barcoo River

Barcoo River

The Barcoo River in western Queensland, Australia that rises on the northern slopes of the Warrego Range, flows in a south westerly direction and unites with the Thomson River to form Cooper Creek. The first European to see the river was Thomas Mitchell in 1846, who named it Victoria Stream...

 north of Windorah

Windorah, Queensland

Windorah is one of three towns in the Barcoo in south-west Queensland, Australia. It is named after the local Aboriginal word for "Big Fish". At the 2006 census, Windorah had a population of 158....

 to form Cooper Creek

Cooper Creek

Cooper Creek is one of the most famous and yet least visited rivers in Australia. It is sometimes known as the Barcoo River from one of its tributaries and is one of three major Queensland river systems that flow into the Lake Eyre Basin...

. This is the only place in the world where the confluence of two rivers form a creek.

As with all of the rivers in the Lake Eyre Basin, the waters of the Thomson never reach the sea, and instead either evaporate, or, in exceptional flood, empty into Lake Eyre

Lake Eyre

Lake Eyre is the lowest point in Australia, at approximately below sea level, and, on the rare occasions that it fills, it is the largest lake in Australia and 18th largest in the world...

. Floods are relatively common within the catchement because of the summer monsoon rains. Due to the flat nature of the country traversed, the river can then become many kilometres wide, causing major difficulties. For much of the time, however, the river does not flow, and becomes a line of billabong

Billabong

Billabong is an Australian English word meaning a small lake, specifically an oxbow lake, a section of still water adjacent to a river, cut off by a change in the watercourse. Billabongs are usually formed when the path of a creek or river changes, leaving the former branch with a dead end...

s.

The area through which the river flows is semi-arid

Semi-arid

A semi-arid climate or steppe climate describes climatic regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not extremely...

 blacksoil plain

Plain

In geography, a plain is land with relatively low relief, that is flat or gently rolling. Prairies and steppes are types of plains, and the archetype for a plain is often thought of as a grassland, but plains in their natural state may also be covered in shrublands, woodland and forest, or...

s. The main industries of the area are sheep and beef cattle

Beef cattle

Beef cattle are cattle raised for meat production . The meat of cattle is known as beef. When raised in a feedlot cattle are known as feeder cattle. Many such feeder cattle are born in cow-calf operations specifically designed to produce beef calves...

.