River
Murchison River
780 km from source to mouth · Australia.
AustraliaFlows into Indian Ocean
In numbers
Length
780km
Average flow
22m³/s
Basin
91,252km²
Drop
518m
from 518 m to 0 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
780 km of river and 4 stops on the way: 0 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 518 m
- 143 kmYalgar Rivertributary
- 361 kmRoderick Rivertributary
- 438 kmSanford Rivertributary
- 461 kmBallinyoo Bridge
- 780 kmIndian Oceanat 0 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Western Australia
At the mouth it carries 22 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 113 seconds. It drops from 518 m to 0 m, 0.7 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 91,252 km², about the size of JO. 1,310 people live in it. Highest water: July; lowest: from November to February. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- KalbarriLargest city on its banks · 2,602 people
- Geraldton Airport (GET)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 132 km from the cityCar hire at GET airport (Moonyoonooka)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water6 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- April and from August to NovemberThe best months to visit
Murchison River, month by month
Highest water: July
Lowest water: from November to February. Best months to visit: April and from August to November.
From about 8.3 m³/s in the lowest month to 48 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Murchison River: the basin in numbers
65,654 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 1,310people live in the basin
- 0/km²people per km²
- 403maverage altitude of the basin
- 221mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 21.9°Caverage air temperature
- 2%protected areas
What covers the basin
- 88% Pasture
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Murchison River: what you find on the way
- 5Boat ramps
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.3 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Murchison River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
2beaches at the mouth and on the banksCoastya
Beaches (2)
At the mouth (25 km) and on the banks, by Coastya
- Red Bluff Beach4.8 km away24.2°C
- Nancy Beach12 km away24.1°C
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Murchison River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (5)
Also: Impey River, Yalgar River, Sanford River, Roderick River, Ord River
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1703677) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Coastya — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
beaches
Find your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit 
lakes
Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit 
mountains
Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
waterfalls
Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit 
islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyons
Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit