Calvert River
Originating from headwaters between the Calvert Hills and China Wall, the Calvert River flows northward through Garawa Country. It drains a catchment area of 10,033 square kilometres before discharging into the Gulf of Carpentaria, 150 kilometres east of Borroloola near the Queensland/Northern Territory border. Fourteen tributaries join the Calvert along its 222-kilometre course, which remains free from dams or irrigation.
On 8 September 1845, Ludwig Leichhardt named a small river shaded by pandanus and tea-trees, with a series of deep waterholes that still held fish late in the dry season after Abel Tasman , but subsequently renamed the Calvert, in acknowledgement of the good services of Mr. Calvert during our expedition, and which I feel much pleasure in recording." According to Leichhardt, Yorkshire-born James Calvert was the only member who "behaved perfectly, with few exceptions".
Research conducted by Glen McLaren in the 1990s suggests that the stream Leichhardt named after Calvert may correspond to the current Sandy Creek.
Sources:
A. H. Chisholm, James Snowden Calvert (1825–1884), Australian Dictionary of Biography
NT Place Names Register: Calvert River https://www.ntlis.nt.gov.au/placenames/view.jsp?id=11484
Wikipedia: Calvert River https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvert_River
