The Berckelman 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 w ...

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 headwaters of the river rise in the Harding Range and flow in a north-westerly direction before discharging into the Sale River, of which it is a

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 ...

. The river was named the Berckelman on 13 June 1865 by

Trevarton Charles Sholl Trevarton Charles Sholl (7 July 1845 – March 1867) was an explorer of North-West Australia and government official. During the 1860s, he undertook expeditions to the regions known later as the Kimberley and Pilbara. In March 1867, at the age o ...

while on an exploratory expedition from the short-lived Camden Harbour settlement (in

Camden Sound Camden Sound is a relatively wide body of water in the Indian Ocean located in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The Sound is bounded by the Bonaparte Archipelago to the north-east, the Buccaneer Archipelago to the south-west, and M ...

). Sholl named the river after his mother, Mary Ann Sholl, née Berckelman (1822-1889). TC Sholl's father

Robert John Sholl Robert John Sholl (16 July 1819 – 19 June 1886) was a government administrator, magistrate, explorer, journalist, entrepreneur, harbourmaster, customs official, postmaster and lay reader in Western Australia (WA), during the colonial era. ...

was the

government resident A resident minister, or resident for short, is a government official required to take up permanent residence in another country. A representative of his government, he officially has diplomatic functions which are often seen as a form of indir ...

of the North District: all of the

Colony of Western Australia In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state'' ...

north of the Murchison River. TC Sholl was his father's clerk, tidewaiter, postmaster and assistant

registrar A registrar is an official keeper of records made in a register. The term may refer to: Education * Registrar (education), an official in an academic institution who handles student records * Registrar of the University of Oxford, one of the se ...

for the North District. At the time, the government resident's office was based at Camden Harbour, but was transferred to the Tien Tsin Harbor (later Cossack) area in November 1865.

References

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