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History of River Names - F


The following information is a summary of the origins for river names in Western Australia. Please select the first letter of the river you wish to see.
Please note: The names of all river names are being added progressively to the database.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M

FERGUSON RIVER – the Ferguson is a 36km long tributary of the Preston River, rising in the Darling Range and flowing generally north westerly to join the Preston at Picton near Bunbury. It was named by surveyor H M Ommanney in 1844 after Dr John Ferguson (1802-1883) whose property on the river Ommanney was surveying at the time.


FISH RIVER – the Fish River is located in the west Kimberley near Kuri Bay, and is a 20km long tributary of the Gairdner River. It was named by the explorer/botanist James Martin in 1864, because, as Martin wrote in his diary, ‘the river positively swam with fish’.


FITZGERALD RIVER – located on the south coast, the Fitzgerald was named by Surveyor General J S Roe during explorations in 1848 after Charles Fitzgerald (1792-1887), Governor of WA from 1848 to 1855. The river rises near Lake Magenta and flows generally south easterly for about 70km into Fitzgerald Inlet in the Fitzgerald River National Park on the south coast.


FITZROY RIVER – the Fitzroy River is one of the two major rivers of the Kimberley region (the Ord is the other). It rises in the King Leopold Ranges and empties into King Sound south of Derby after flowing for 622km. The combined length of the Fitzroy and its major tributary, the Hann, is 733km. The river was named by Lt J L Stokes of HMS ‘Beagle”, ‘with Captain Wickham’s permission’, on 26/2/1838. It is named after Captain Robert Fitzroy (1805-1865), the second Commander of the ‘Beagle’, a man Stokes greatly admired. Robert Fitz-roy, a British naval officer, was born in Suffolk 5/6/1805. He commanded the 'Beagle' from 1828 to 1830 and from 1831 to 1836 in extended surveys of the South American coast. During his second trip Charles Robert Darwin accompanied him as naturalist. Fitzroy was awarded the Geographical Society gold medal in 1837. In 1839 he published the narratives of the surveying voyages of the 'Adventure' and the 'Beagle' in three volumes. the third by Darwin. He was Governor of New Zealand from 1843 to 1845, Superintendent of Woolwich Dockyard in 1848-9 and also held other important posts. Responsible for several well-known works on navigation and meteorology, he is regarded as the founder of modern meteorological services. Pressure of work caused his mind to give way and he committed suicide in London 30/4/1865.


FLETCHER RIVER – the Fletcher River is a 30km long tributary of the Barker River in the west Kimberley region, and was named by a survey team from the Bureau of Mineral Resources that carried out a geological survey of the region in 1955. It is possibly named after Harold Fletcher, Curator of Palaeontology at the Australian Museum who had previously passed through the area.


FORREST RIVER – the Forrest River is located in the east Kimberley region, rising about 100km west north west of Wyndham and flowing for about 141km into the west arm of Cambridge Gulf. It was named by Staff Commander J E Coghlan RN during hydrographic surveys of the area in 1884 after John Forrest (1847-1918), Surveyor General of the colony at the time and later Premier (1890).


FORTESCUE RIVER – the Fortescue River is the State’s third longest river, rising in the Ophthalmia Range near Newman and entering the Indian Ocean in Mardie Station, a total length of 760km. The river was named by the surveyor/explorer F T Gregory, leader of the North-West Australian Exploring Expedition in June 1861. It is named after C S Fortescue, ‘the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, under whose auspices the expedition took its origin’. C S Fortescue was Under Secretary 22/5/1857 – 27/02/1858 and 18/06/1859 – 25/06/1865.


FORTESCUE RIVER SOUTH – the southern branch of the Fortescue, this river is about 71km long, rising near Mt Frederick in the Hamersley Range. It was first surveyed in 1889.


FORTH RIVER – the Forth is a small south western river, 10.5km long and flowing into Broke Inlet west of Walpole. It is not known who named the river or why this name was given. In 1831 Captain T Bannister discovered a river to the east of Broke Inlet to which the name Forth River was applied, the plans indicating that it flowed into the inlet. It appears the river Bannister discovered was part of the Deep River, so the name Forth River was afterwards applied to a river flowing into Broke Inlet in a more north-westerly position.


FOX RIVER – the Fox River was named by surveyor C W Nyulasy in 1887 after Peter J Fox, an outback butcher, one of the first on the Halls Creek goldfields and who was camped at the rivers junction with the Johnston River when Nyulasy passed by. The river is about 32km long and is a tributary of the Johnston River south east of Halls Creek.


FRANK RIVER – the Frank River is a tributary of the Ord River in the east Kimberley, flowing for about 38km through the Osmand and Bungle Bungle Ranges. It was named during surveys in the Kimberley in 1884, but it not known after whom at present.


FRANKLAND RIVER – the Frankland is the largest southerly flowing river in WA, and is some 162km in length from its source to discharge in Nornalup Inlet west of Walpole. Its main tributary is the 96km long Gordon River. The river was sighted by Captain Thomas Bannister in 1831, and was apparently named by Governor James Stirling when Bannister reported its existence to him. A nearby hill had earlier been named Mount Frankland by explorer T B Wilson in 1829, after George Frankland (1979-1875), the then Surveyor General of Tasmania, and this probably influenced the choice of name by Stirling. The Frankland was apparently previously known by sealers as the Deep River.


FRASER RIVER – the Fraser River is located in the west Kimberley and was named by surveyor/explorer Alexander Forrest in 1879 after Malcolm Fraser (1834-1900), the Commissioner of Crown Lands at that time. The river is about 70km long, flowing in a generally easterly direction into King Sound west of Derby.

FRASER SOUTH RIVER – this river is the southern branch of the Fraser River in the west Kimberley, and is about 56km long. It was named by the Bureau of Mineral Resources in 1955.


FREDERIC RIVER – the Frederic River is a small 5km long tributary of the Brunswick River in the Darling Range east of Brunswick Junction. It was possibly named by surveyor H M Ommanney in 1840, and is believed named after Frederick William Brunswick (see Brunswick River).

FREDERICK RIVER – the Frederick River is a 77km long tributary of the Lyons River, rising in the Kenneth Range and joining the Lyons near Cobra Homestead. It was named by the explorer E T Hooley in 1866 after Federick Mackie Roe, son of Surveyor General J S Roe who was at the time a third class clerk in the Survey Office.

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