Great Fish River, river in the Cape Midlands, Eastern Cape province, southern South Africa. The Great Fish River has a length of 430 miles (692 km) and a drainage area of 11,900 square miles (30,800 square km). Its main northern tributary, the Great Brak River, rises in 7,000-foot- (2,100-metre-) high mountains 30 miles (48 km) south of the Orange River and northeast of Middelburg. The Tarka River, coming from the northeast, and the Baviaans and Kat rivers farther south are the main eastern tributaries. The direction of the Great Fish River is mainly southward; however, about halfway along its course it turns east and joins with the Koonap River before entering the Indian Ocean 37 miles (60 km) southeast of Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown).
It was called the Rio de Infante by the Portuguese and the Oub (“Fish”) by the Khoekhoe. The Nguni peoples had settled as far south as the Great Fish River by 1500 ce. In the early 19th century the lower Great Fish valley formed a battle zone between mostly British settlers moving east from the Cape and tribal settlements to the northeast.
The runoff of the Great Fish River is small and erratic, but there is irrigation development along its course. An irrigation scheme to transfer water from the Orange River basin to the Great Fish River basin was implemented in 1980 with the construction of a 51-mile- (82-km-) long water tunnel—the world’s longest—from the Gariep Dam (formerly Hendrik Verwoerd Dam).