Geography
The Murray River forms part of the 3,750-kilometre (2,330 mi) long combined Murray-Darling river system which drains most of inland Victoria, New South Wales, and southern Queensland. Overall the catchment area is one seventh of Australia's total land mass. The Murray carries only a small fraction of the water of comparably sized rivers in other parts of the world, and with a great annual variability of its flow. In its natural state it has even been known to dry up completely in extreme drought, although that is extremely rare, with only two or three instances of this occurring since official record keeping began.
The Murray makes up much of the border between the Australian states of Victoria and New South Wales. Where it does, the border is the top of the bank of the southern side of the river (i.e., none of the river itself is actually in Victoria). This boundary definition can be ambiguous as the river changes course and some of the river banks have been modified.
West of the 141°E line of longitude, the river continues as the Victoria – South Australia border for 3.6 kilometres (2.2 mi), this being the only stretch where a state border runs down the middle of the river. This was due to a miscalculation in the 1840s when the border was originally surveyed. Past this point, the Murray River is entirely within the state of South Australia.
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