The Barkly Tableland is a rolling plain of grassland in Australia. It runs from the eastern part of the Northern Territory into western Queensland. It is one of the five regions in the Northern Territory and covers , 21% of the Northern Territory. The Barkly Tableland runs parallel to the southern shore of the Gulf of Carpentaria, from about Mount Isa, Queensland to near Daly Waters. History William Landsborough was the first non-Indigenous Australian person to explore the tableland, and named it after Sir Henry Barkly, then governor of Victoria. In 1877 the overlander, Nathaniel Buchanan and Sam Croker crossed the Barkly Tableland and rode on to the Overland Telegraph Line opening new land for settlement. It was not until the introduction of generous leasing arrangements on the Barkly in the late 1870s that the region became more settled. In 1883, Harry Readford, one of the inspirations for the literary character Captain Starlight, drove a mob of cattle to the Barkly and subsequently established Brunette Downs (then called Corella Creek), with outstations at Anthony Lagoon and Cresswell Creek, for Macdonald, Smith and Co. In 1884, 2,500 cattle were driven to Brunette Downs and in 1885, Readford brought in 1,200 mixed cattle from Burketown. Other cattle stations in the area include Alexandria, Mittiebah and Walhallow. Geography The Barkly Tableland rises to more than 300 metres (1,000 feet) near the Queensland and Northern Territory border. Black soil plains cover much of the Barkly Tableland. Rainfall in this inland area is low (350mm per year) and subject to extreme seasonal fluctuations with rains occurring from November to March during the hot (up to 40 °C) summer. Winters are cool and frost may occur, especially in the southern section of the plain in Queensland. The Barkly Tableland is a distinct physiographic province of the larger West Australian Shield division. It includes the Mueller Plateau and Sandover-Pituri Platform physiographic sections between the desert uplands in the west and Mount Isa, Queensland in the east. The Tableland drains into the Gulf of Carpentaria via the Flinders River while the southwestern plains drain into Lake Eyre via the Diamantina River or into the Simpson Desert via the Georgina River which has its source on the Tableland. Mount Isa meanwhile is drained by the Leichardt River. Waterways on the Tableland itself are small as most water drains into the porous limestone, sometimes forming salt lakes such as Lake