The Kent River is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

in the Great Southern of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. The headwaters of the river rise near

Tenterden Tenterden is a town in the borough of Ashford in Kent, England. It stands on the edge of the remnant forest the Weald, overlooking the valley of the River Rother. It was a member of the Cinque Ports Confederation. Its riverside today is not ...

. The river flows in a south-westerly direction, crosses the

Muirs Highway Muirs Highway is a Western Australian highway linking Manjimup and Mount Barker on the Albany Highway. It is signed as State Route 102 and is long. It provides a shorter distance between Manjimup and Albany. It is a lonely highway surrounde ...

east of Rocky Gully, flows through Mount Roe and Mount Lindesay national parks, crosses the

South Coast Highway South Coast Highway is a Western Australian highway. It is a part of the Highway 1 network. With a length of , it runs from Esperance to Walpole roughly in parallel to Western Australia's south coast. Even then the journey is pretty much i ...

near Kenton, flows through the

Owingup Nature Reserve The Owingup Swamp and Boat Harbour Wetlands Important Bird Area is a 442 ha site comprising Owingup Swamp, and ten other, smaller, wetlands nearby, in the Great Southern region of south-western Australia. It lies about 25 km south-sou ...

swampland and finally discharges into the eastern side of

Irwin Inlet Irwin Inlet is an inlet in the located on the Great Southern region of Western Australia. It was also known as Quarram Inlet. The inlet receives water from two main sources, Bow River of the north west and Kent River to the north east. The inl ...

. There are two

tributaries A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or 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 drain the surrounding drainage b ...

to the Kent; Styx River and Nile Creek. The river was named in 1829 by Thomas Wilson who was the first

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an to explore the river. He named it after a member of his exploration party John Kent, of the 39th Regiment, Assistant Commissary General at the

King George Sound King George Sound ( nys , Menang Koort) is a sound on the south coast of Western Australia. Named King George the Third's Sound in 1791, it was referred to as King George's Sound from 1805. The name "King George Sound" gradually came into use ...

garrison.

References

Rivers of the Great Southern region {{WesternAustralia-river-stub