Of all the Lake Eyre Basin river systems, however, Cooper Creek is by far the most famous, in particular because it was along Cooper Creek that the explorers Burke and Wills met their deaths. It rises in the form of two central Queensland rivers, the Thomson between Longreach and Charters Towers, and the Barcoo in the area around Barcaldine, about inland from Rockhampton. Cooper Creek spreads out into a vast area of meandering ephemeral channels, making its way roughly south into the far south-west corner of Queensland before turning due west into South Australia towards Lake Eyre. It takes almost a year for water to reach Lake Eyre from the headwaters. In most years, none does: it is absorbed into the earth, goes to fill channels and the many permanent waterholes, or simply evaporates. Water from Cooper Creek reached Lake Eyre in 1990 and then not again until 2010.