The Frankland 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 Great Southern 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 Frankland River is the largest river by volume in the region and the eighth largest in the state. 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 right ...

of the area are the

Noongar The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the so ...

people, who know the river as Kwakoorillup.

Location and features

Mt Frankland was given its modern name in December 1829 by naval ship's surgeon Thomas Braidwood Wilson after the Surveyor General of Van Diemen's Land George Frankland. Wilson explored the area in company with the Noongar Mokare from King George Sound, John Kent (officer in charge of the Commissariat at Frederick Town, King George Sound), two convicts and Private William Gough of the 39th Regiment, while his ship the ''Governor Phillip'' was being repaired at

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 ...

. The river was sighted by Captain Thomas Bannister in January 1831, and was named by Governor James Stirling when Bannister reported its existence to him. Stirling's choice was influenced by Wilson's naming of Mt Frankland. The Frankland was apparently previously known by sealers as the Deep River. The Gordon River, 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 ...

of the Frankland River has its source south-west of the town of Broomehill. The other two smaller tributaries are Towerlup Brook and Ornabullup Creek. The Walpole, the

Deep Deep or The Deep may refer to: Places United States * Deep Creek (Appomattox River tributary), Virginia * Deep Creek (Great Salt Lake), Idaho and Utah * Deep Creek (Mahantango Creek tributary), Pennsylvania * Deep Creek (Mojave River tributary), ...

and the Frankland all flow into the

Nornalup Inlet Nornalup Inlet ( /ˈnoːnələp ˈɪnlət/ Australian English) is an estuarine body of water on the south coast of the South West of Australia, approximately from Perth. It is approximately in extent, and up to deep. It is fed by the Deep ...

west of Walpole. 85% of the Frankland River's catchment, mostly about the rainfall

isohyet A contour line (also isoline, isopleth, or isarithm) of a function of two variables is a curve along which the function has a constant value, so that the curve joins points of equal value. It is a plane section of the three-dimensional grap ...

, is cleared for agriculture. The main land uses are cereal cropping and sheep grazing, with minor dairy farming, agroforestry, viticulture and olive farming. Salinity has increased in the river system with average values of 2

parts per thousand In science and engineering, the parts-per notation is a set of pseudo-units to describe small values of miscellaneous dimensionless quantities, e.g. mole fraction or mass fraction. Since these fractions are quantity-per-quantity measures, they ...

in the 1970s to 1980s to 30 ppt since 2000.

References

{{Rivers of Western Australia Rivers of the Great Southern region Warren bioregion

Location and features

See also

References