Stokes Inlet is an

inlet An inlet is a typically long and narrow indentation of a shoreline such as a small arm, cove, bay, sound, fjord, lagoon or marsh, that leads to an enclosed larger body of water such as a lake, estuary, gulf or marginal sea. Overview In ...

in the Goldfields-Esperance 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 ...

. The inlet is situated west of Esperance in

Stokes National Park Stokes National Park is a national park in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, 538 km south-east of Perth. The National Park is located west of Esperance on the southern coast. The park was named after Stokes Inlet, wh ...

and is set is a large

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

with permanent deep water and high dunes located on either side. Thick bushland and

paperbark ''Melaleuca'' () is a genus of nearly 300 species of plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, commonly known as paperbarks, honey-myrtles, bottlebrushes or tea-trees (although the last name is also applied to species of '' Leptospermum''). They ...

trees surround the inlet and grow down to the waters edge. It is in a largely unmodified condition. The inlet functions primarily as a result of wave energy and is a wave dominated

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime enviro ...

. Stokes Inlet was named in 1848 by

John Septimus Roe John Septimus Roe (8 May 1797 – 28 May 1878) was the first Surveyor-General of Western Australia. He was a renowned explorer, a member of Western Australia's legislative and executive councils for nearly 40 years, but also a participant in ...

, the

Surveyor General of Western Australia The Surveyor General of Western Australia is the person nominally responsible for government surveying in Western Australia. In the early history of Western Australia, the office of surveyor general was one of the most important public offices. ...

, while leading a five-man exploration expedition along the coast, commemorating

John Lort Stokes Admiral John Lort Stokes (1 August 1811 – 11 June 1885) was a Royal Navy officer who served onboard for almost eighteen years.Although 1812 is frequently given as Stokes's year of birth, it has been argued by author Marsden Hordern that Stok ...

' work on , surveying the Western Australian coast.

Geography

The inlet is managed by the Department of Environment and Conservation with a

catchment A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, th ...

that extends over inland and is fed by two main rivers, the

Young Young may refer to: * Offspring, the product of reproduction of a new organism produced by one or more parents * Youth, the time of life when one's age is low, often meaning the time between childhood and adulthood Music * The Young, an America ...

and Lort Rivers. The inlet itself is long and wide with an area of , and receives an annual flow of 5 million cubic metres. The central basin has an area of with intertidal flats having an area of approximately . The mouth of the river is in the middle of Dunster Castle Bay; it is closed by a sandbar that cuts the

off from the sea and only opens every few years. As a result, the

salinity Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of salt (chemistry), salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensio ...

and water level fluctuate greatly dependent upon the amount of

evaporation Evaporation is a type of vaporization that occurs on the Interface (chemistry), surface of a liquid as it changes into the gas phase. A high concentration of the evaporating substance in the surrounding gas significantly slows down evapora ...

and river flow.

Flora

The aquatic flora of the estuary are dominated by the small green

algae Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular ...

'' Polyphysa peniculus'', the stonewort '' Lamprothamnium papulosum'', and the seagrass ''

Ruppia megacarpa ''Ruppia megacarpa'' is a submerged herb species in the genus ''Ruppia ''Ruppia'', also known as the widgeonweeds, ditch grasses or widgeon grass, is the only extant genus in the family Ruppiaceae, with 11 known species. These are aquatic pl ...

''. The waterbody of the inlet is fringed with salt water paperbarks with

sedge The Cyperaceae () are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as wikt:sedge, sedges. The family (biology), family is large; botanists have species description, described some 5,500 known species in about 90 ...

s and

samphire Samphire is a name given to a number of succulent salt-tolerant plants (halophytes) that tend to be associated with water bodies. * Rock samphire ('' Crithmum maritimum'') is a coastal species with white flowers that grows in Ireland, the Uni ...

common along the sandy sections.

Fauna

Marine species flourish at times when the bar is open; blue manna crabs, juvenile

prawn Prawn is a common name for small aquatic crustaceans with an exoskeleton An exoskeleton () . is a skeleton that is on the exterior of an animal in the form of hardened integument, which both supports the body's shape and protects the intern ...

s, cockles and

mussel Mussel () is the common name used for members of several families of bivalve molluscs, from saltwater and Freshwater bivalve, freshwater habitats. These groups have in common a shell whose outline is elongated and asymmetrical compared with other ...

s have all been identified in the inlet. Many fish species inhabit the estuary, such as the

common minnow ''Phoxinus phoxinus'' (known colloquially as the Eurasian minnow, minnow, Channel minnow, or common minnow) is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Leuciscidae, which includes the daces, minnows and related fishes. It i ...

, hardyheads, gobies, and larger species such as black bream and sea mullet.

References

{{reflist Inlets of Western Australia South coast of Western Australia Shire of Esperance