The Irwin River is a river in the

Mid West The Mid West region is one of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is a sparsely populated region extending from the west coast of Western Australia, about north and south of its administrative centre of Geraldton and inland to east of W ...

region of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. It was named on 9 April 1839 by the explorer

George Grey Sir George Grey, KCB (14 April 1812 – 19 September 1898) was a British soldier, explorer, colonial administrator and writer. He served in a succession of governing positions: Governor of South Australia, twice Governor of New Zealand, Gov ...

, while on his second disastrous exploration expedition along the Western Australian coast. Grey named the river after his friend Major

Frederick Irwin Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Chidley Irwin, KH (22 March 1794 – 31 March 1860) was acting Governor of Western Australia from 1847 to 1848. Born in 1794 in Drogheda, Ireland, Frederick Chidley Irwin was the son of Reverend James Irwin. Som ...

, the Commandant of the Swan River settlement. The headwaters of the Irwin are located below Canna near

Pindar Pindar (; ; ; ) was an Greek lyric, Ancient Greek lyric poet from Thebes, Greece, Thebes. Of the Western canon, canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian wrote, "Of the nine lyric poets, Pindar i ...

. The river flows west until discharging into Arurine Bay near Dongara. The river passes through the Coalseam Conservation Park to the north of Mingenew which has a mixed geology of

siltstone Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility. Although its permeabil ...

claystone Mudrocks are a class of fine-grained siliciclastic sedimentary rocks. The varying types of mudrocks include siltstone, claystone, mudstone and shale. Most of the particles of which the stone is composed are less than and are too small to ...

s and sandstones that form stripes in the cliff faces formed by the river. The river has four

tributaries A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream ('' main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which the ...

: Lockier River, Sand Plain Creek, Nangetty Creek and Mullewa Creek. The river occasionally floods as it did in 1945 following a severe storm that swept over the area. The river broke its banks and caused extensive damage including the loss of 450

sheep Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to d ...

that were swept away from a farm that straddled the river.

References

Rivers of the Mid West region {{WesternAustralia-river-stub