the finke river has been called "the oldest river in the world", particularly by tour operators, and in popular books and brochures. in places such as the james range, the finke flows through deeply incised meanders (see google maps image). because meanders only form on flat plains, the river must have formed before the ranges were pushed up. this happened in a mountain building event known as the alice springs orogeny which happened between 400 and 300 million years ago, in the devonian to carboniferous periods. some parts of the river’s course must have been already in existence around this time. the southern parts of its course must be much younger because the areas where the finke now flows near the southern edge of the northern territory, and further south, were under the sea during the mesozoic era, part of the great artesian basin.