The May River is a river in the Kimberley region 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 river is formed when the

Lennard River Lennard River is a river in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The river was named on 8 June 1879 by the explorer Alexander Forrest, during an expedition in the Kimberley area, after Amy Eliza Barrett-Lennard (1852-1897), who he was to ...

splits into two channels north of Mount Marmion and near the Kimberley Downs Station homestead, the other channel being the

Meda River The Meda River is a river in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The river is formed when the Lennard River splits into two channels just north of Mount Marmion, the other channel being the May River. Continuing to flow westward the ...

. It continues to flow west north-westward through Poulton Pool until it eventually discharges into Stokes Bay,

King Sound King Sound is a large gulf in northern Western Australia. It expands from the mouth of the Fitzroy River, one of Australia's largest watercourses, and opens to the Indian Ocean. It is about long, and averages about in width. The port town ...

which is north-east of

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...

. The river was named in 1881 by a pioneer of the area,

George Julius Brockman George Julius Brockman (2 January 1850 – 29 August 1912) was a prominent explorer and pastoralist in the Gascoyne and Kimberley regions of Western Australia. Born in 1850 at Guildford, George was the seventh son of Robert Brockman and broth ...

, during an expedition in the Kimberley area looking for grazing land north of the Fitzroy River. He named the river after the granddaughter of

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 t ...

, Mary Matilda (May) Thomson. The only

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 drainag ...

of the May and the

Lennard Lennard may refer to: *Lennard Freeman (born 1995), American basketball player in the Israeli Basketball Premier League *Lennard Pearce (1915–1984), English actor *Dave Lennard (born 1944), English footballer *Henry Lennard (16th–17th century ...

and Camiara Creek. The

northern river shark The northern river shark or New Guinea river shark (''Glyphis garricki'') is a species of requiem shark, in the family Carcharhinidae, found in scattered tidal rivers and associated coastal waters in northern Australia and in Papua New Guinea ...

is known to inhabit the tidal region of the river and has been found further upstream.

Barramundi The barramundi (''Lates calcarifer'') or Asian sea bass, is a species of catadromous fish in the family Latidae of the order Perciformes. The species is widely distributed in the Indo-West Pacific, spanning the waters of the Middle East, Sout ...

and cherabin are also caught in the river pools after the

wet season The wet season (sometimes called the Rainy season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. It is the time of year where the majority of a country's or region's annual precipitation occurs. Generally, the sea ...

References

Rivers of the Kimberley region of Western Australia {{WesternAustralia-river-stub