The Meda 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 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 just north of Mount Marmion, the other channel being the

May River The May River is a river in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The river is formed when the Lennard River splits into two channels north of Mount Marmion and near the Kimberley Downs Station homestead, the other channel being the Me ...

. Continuing to flow westward the river 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. The river is named after ''HMS Meda'', an Admiralty surveying vessel that charted the coastline in the area including the river mouth in 1880. The

traditional owners Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have rights ...

of the areas around the river are the Ongkarango people. The Meda has three

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 ...

, the

, May River and Hawkstone Creek.

References

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