The Munglinup River is an

ephemeral Ephemerality (from the Greek word , meaning 'lasting only one day') is the concept of things being transitory, existing only briefly. Academically, the term ephemeral constitutionally describes a diverse assortment of things and experiences, fr ...

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 Goldfields-Esperance 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 near Cheadanup Nature Reserve. It flows in a southerly direction through cleared farmland, then crossing the

South Coast Highway South Coast Highway is a Western Australian highway. It is a part of the Highway 1 network. With a length of , it runs from Esperance to Walpole roughly in parallel to Western Australia's south coast. Even then the journey is pretty much i ...

near the town of

Munglinup Munglinup is a small town located in the Shire of Ravensthorpe in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia. The town lies on the South Coast Highway between Ravensthorpe and Esperance and close to the Munglinup River. The river ...

before discharging into the Oldfield 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 drainage ...

, approximately from the coast. For most of the length of the river it is within a vegetated corridor, the surrounding land is mostly cleared for stock with only about 15% remnant vegetation remaining. The river only flows in the winter months and the water is naturally saline or

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...

. The only

to the river is Clayhole Creek. The word Munglinup is

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

in origin and of unknown meaning. The name was first recorded by C.D. Price, a

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

in 1875. The Dempster Brothers first used the name for their sheep station in 1860.

References

Rivers of the Goldfields-Esperance region {{WesternAustralia-river-stub