| Baffle | |
| Name Etymology: | Baffle (verb) |
| Pushpin Map: | Australia Queensland |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location of Baffle Creek river mouth in Queensland |
| Subdivision Type1: | Country |
| Subdivision Name1: | Australia |
| Subdivision Type2: | State |
| Subdivision Name2: | Queensland |
| Subdivision Type3: | Region |
| Subdivision Name3: | Central Queensland |
| Length: | 124km (77miles) |
| Discharge1 Location: | Near mouth |
| Discharge1 Avg: | [1] |
| Source1: | Great Dividing Range |
| Source1 Location: | Arthurs Seat |
| Source1 Coordinates: | -24.1869°N 151.6394°W |
| Source1 Elevation: | 282m (925feet) |
| Mouth: | Mouth of Baffle Creek Conservation Park |
| Mouth Location: | Coral Sea, Australia |
| Mouth Coordinates: | -24.4986°N 152.0511°W |
| Mouth Elevation: | 0m (00feet) |
| Basin Size: | 2541.2km2[2] |
| Tributaries Left: | Island Creek (Queensland), Euleilah Creek |
| Tributaries Right: | Granite Creek (Queensland), Three Mile Creek (Queensland), Scrubby Creek, Grevillea Creek |
| Custom Label: | Islands |
| Custom Data: | Grants Island; Long Island |
| Extra: | [3] |
The Baffle Creek is a creek in Central Queensland, Australia.
The Baffle Creek rises near Arthurs Seat in the Eurimbula State Forest and just south of the Eurimbula National Park in the Great Dividing Range. The 124km (77miles) creek flows initially southward, hemmed to the west by the Westwood Range and to the east by Mount Dromedary. The creek continues south crossed by the Bruce Highway just east of Miriam Vale and then turns south east forming braided channels near Sonoma and hemmed to the east by the Gwynne Range resulting in the formation of one named island, Grants Island. It then is crossed by the Bruce Highway again and turns east under Mount Maria then north and flows through the Mouth of Baffle Creek Conservation Park and finally discharges into the Coral Sea south of Rules Beach and northeast of Winfield. At its mouth the creek again forms an anabranch around Long Island.[3]
The catchment area of the creek occupies an 4084km2 of which an area of 134km2 is composed of estuarine wetlands.[4]
The creek was named in the 1850s by the pastoralist and politician, William Henry Walsh, during an expedition led by him to track an Aboriginal raiding party into the bush. The footprints of the raiders disappeared in the dense bush along the creek banks leading the party unable to follow them further and leading Walsh to name the creek as Baffle Creek.[5]