Sunday 26 June 2016

A Creek


A creek flowing down to the New South Wales coast.

Most small rivers and large streams are known as creeks in Australia, whether they empty into an estuary or are well inland and feed a river.

Our posts on Sunday have an Australian theme. To see more click here.

7 comments:

Le Pré de la Forge said...

A certain young water engineer that we both know would be appalled at that sight....
"Ahhhg! There are tree trunks in the stream!!"
But, I hazard that there's more life in that stream than in the Aigronne at the moment....

Ken Broadhurst said...

We use the term creek the same way in the U.S. On the North Carolina coast, creeks are often what are called 'fleuves côtiers' (coastal rivers) in French. They're estuaries or feed into estuaries. But inland, creeks are streams that feed into rivers.

Susan said...

I thought Yohann was a bit more switched on than that?! He wants to put in gabions -- what's the difference between that and a tree trunk? (in fact, tree trunks have the advantage of being free).

Susan said...

I think the 'creeks are tidal inlets' definition must just be a British thing.

Susan said...

I have an American born friend who has lived in Australia most of her adult life. Her married name is Creek and whenever she returns to the US she is dismayed to hear people pronouncing it 'Crick'.

Le Pré de la Forge said...

Yes, I know.... But they were desperate to remove any trunks from here!!
And the other advantage of trunks, is that they are a natural harbour for life...yes, a gaboon [bloody smellchequer!]....a gabion has stony nooks and crannies , but no bark to get behind, or proper cracks.

Ken Broadhurst said...

The "crick" pronunciation is apparently regional. We used it facetiously because it sounds rural and countrified. In N.C. we always pronounced creek with the long vowel. There's the French word crique too, meaning a small bay or cove off a larger body of water. It looks like the English and the French words derive from a Scandinavian term, thanks to the Vikings I guess.

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