Below the dam wall, the river is joined by five minor tributaries before emptying into the Coral Sea at Tully Heads.

[3] The Tully, together with the Herbert and the Burdekin rivers, were part of the proposed Bradfield Scheme to divert the upper reaches of the three rivers west of the Great Dividing Range and into the Thomson River designed to irrigate and drought-proof much of the western Queensland interior, as well as large areas of South Australia.

[8] In 2007 there was a white water rafting accident which took the life of 22-year-old Townsville woman at Tully Gorge.

[10] A 2012 inquest into five deaths on the river due to rafting incidents that occurred between July 2007 and February 2009 recommended that each rapid be risk assessed and that a code of practice be adopted for the industry.

[11] The river was named in honour of William Alcock Tully, Surveyor General of Queensland from 1875 to 1889.