The Hann 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

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 areas around the river are the Wurla. It was named after the first

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

an to explore the river,

Frank Hann Frank Hugh Hann (19 October 184521 August 1921) was an Australian pastoralist and explorer. Early life Hann was the son of Joseph and Elizabeth Hann. Fellow explorer William Hann was his older brother. They were born in Wiltshire, England a ...

, who had seen it during his expedition to the region in 1898 and named it the Phillips River. It was renamed in 1900 by the Surveyor General H F Johnston to honour Hann; a Philips River already existed in the south of the state. The river rises below Mount Lacy and Sir John Gorge and then flows in a southerly direction past Mount Elizabeth then crossing the

Gibb River Road The Gibb River Road is a road in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Description The road is a former cattle route that stretches in an east-west direction almost through the Kimberley between the towns of Derby and the Kununurra an ...

. The river then cuts through the Barnett Range and then passes through the Phillips Range via Moll Gorge and flows through the Talbot Range until it flows into the Fitzroy 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 ...

, near Pinnamutta-Murrawong Hill. The Hann has 12 tributaries, including Traine River, Barnett River, Harris Creek, Bella Creek, Macnamara Creek, Crocodile Creek and Grey Mare Creek. The river has the only known specimens of the grass-like ''Whiteochloa sp. Hann River'', a threatened species of Poaceae, located along its course. Fish such as the western rainbowfish, the Kimberley archerfish, Greenway's grunter and the false spotted gudgeon have all been found within the river system.

References

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