The Young River is a river on the
South coast of Western Australia that rises south of the
Frank Hann National Park
Frank Hann National Park is a national park in Western Australia, located east-southeast of the capital, Perth in the Shire of Lake Grace. It was named for Frank Hann, an early explorer of the district. The park contains a wide array of flora ...
then flows in a south easterly direction for a distance of before flowing into
Stokes Inlet which discharges into the
Southern Ocean
The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-smal ...
.
It is also passes through the
Stokes National Park.
The only two
tributaries
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 drain ...
to the river are Cascade Creek and Yerritup Creek.
History
The area around the Young River were used by
Aborigines as a travel route through the region. The river provides some permanent water-pools along its course in an otherwise
semi-arid
A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi- ...
landscape.
Many freshwater
soaks exist along the banks of the river that acted as popular camp-sites for the Aborigines. Six known sites exist along the water course with several stone artefacts being found.
The Young river is thought to be the boundary between two Aboriginal peoples, the Wudjaarri in the west and the Nyungarra to the east.
John Septimus Roe, the Surveyor General, named the Young river after the Governor of South Australia while on expedition in the area in 1835.
Since the 1950s it is estimated that approximately 60% of the land has been cleared in the Young River catchment area for agricultural purposes.
The Department of the Environment installed four gauging stations along the river, the first in 1970, to measure discharge and water quality.
References
{{Authority control
Rivers of the Goldfields-Esperance region