The Behn River or Behm River is a river in the Kimberley

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...

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 rises on the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...

and

border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...

. The river then flows in a north-easterly direction through Behn Gorge and discharges into

Lake Argyle Lake Argyle is Western Australia's largest and Australia's second largest freshwater man-made reservoir by volume. The reservoir is part of the Ord River Irrigation Scheme and is located near the East Kimberley town of Kununurra. The lake ...

. The tributary with the

Ord River The Ord River is a river in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The river's catchment covers . The lower Ord River and the conjunction with Cambridge Gulf create the most northern estuarine environment in Western Australia. The Ord ...

was the site of the original

Argyle Downs Argyle Downs is a pastoral lease and cattle station located about south east of Kununurra in the Kimberley region near the border of Western Australia and Northern Territory. It is operated by the Consolidated Pastoral Company. Descript ...

homestead. Both the original tributary and the Argyle homestead site are now under the waters of

. The river has one major

tributary 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 drai ...

; Bell Creek. The river was named on 7 August 1879 by

Alexander Forrest Alexander Forrest CMG (22 September 1849 – 20 June 1901) was an explorer and surveyor of Western Australia, and later also a member of parliament. As a government surveyor, Forrest explored many areas of remote Western Australia, particu ...

, who was exploring the area at the time. Forrest's journal on 7 August 1879 records.

This river I called the Behn after Dr. Behn of Gotha,-successor to Petermann, and who co-operated with that gentleman for many years in his researches towards the advancement of Australian scientific geography.

It was later determined that the river was really named after

Ernst Behm Ernst Behm (4 January 1830 – 15 March 1884) was a German geographer and statistician who was a native of Gotha. After leaving the Ernestine Gymnasium, Gotha, Behm studied medicine and sciences at the Universities of Jena, Berlin and W ...

, the renowned German geographer. The name on maps produced after 1996 have been corrected. Although maps have been corrected it is still known locally in the Kimberley region as the Behn River. The headwaters of what has become known as the Behn River are close to the NT/WA border in what

named the Sonder Pass in his journal. The Sonder Pass was the headwaters of two rivers, one to the west and one to the east. The river Forrest had named the Behn River was in fact the river flowing to the east on the NT side of the Sonder Pass, which had already been named as the West Baines River by the 1855

Augustus Charles Gregory Sir Augustus Charles Gregory (1 August 1819 – 25 June 1905) was an English-born Australian explorer and surveyor. Between 1846 and 1858 he undertook four major expeditions. He was the first Surveyor-General of Queensland. He was appointed a ...

– North Australian Expedition. Early settlers misinterpreted what Forrest had written and so the unnamed river to the west has become known as the Behn River by name. To fully understand this read Forrest's journals.

References

{{Rivers of Western Australia Ord River Rivers of the Kimberley region of Western Australia