Alps rivers such as the Danube have major tributaries flowing into them that originate in the Alps. The Rhône is second to the Nile as a freshwater source to the Mediterranean Sea; the river begins as glacial meltwater, flows into Lake Geneva, and from there to France where one of its uses is to cool nuclear power plants. The Rhine originates in a 30 square kilometre area in Switzerland and represents almost 60 percent of water exported from the country. Tributary valleys, some of which are complicated, channel water to the main valleys which can experience flooding during the snow melt
Burnett River flows south before swinging to the north-east at its confluence with Johnson Creek, passing through the Auburn River National Park, a little-known and untouched piece of pristine bush including Auburn Waterfall, and flows into the Burnett River west of Mundubbera; the Boyne River that rises in the Bunya Mountains National Park south-west of Kingaroy and flows in a general northerly direction, dammed near Proston to form Lake Boondooma, emptying into the Burnett River near Mundubbera, only from the Burnett River-Auburn River confluence; and the Barambah Creek that rises in the hills between Kingaroy and the Sunshine Coast, north of Jimna