FITZROY RIVER

river in eastern Queensland, Australia, formed by the confluence of the Dawson and Mackenzie rivers, on the slopes of the Eastern Highlands. The united stream flows northeast across the Broadsound Range and then southeast through distributaries to enter Keppel Bay on the Coral Sea of the Pacific Ocean after a course of 300 mi (480 km). Its catchment area with its main tributary, the 100-mi Margaret River, is 55,000 sq mi (142,000 sq km). The Fitzroy is navigable from Port Alma, at the mouth, 35 mi upstream to Rockhampton. Other towns along the river, which is named after Sir Charles Fitz Roy, governor of New South Wales (184555), are Morgan, Clermont, Springsure, and Emerald. Experimental pasturing and rice farming are practiced along the lower floodplain. river in northern Western Australia. It rises in the Durack Range in east Kimberley and traces a 325-mile (525-kilometre) course that flows southwest through the rugged King Leopold Ranges and the Geikie Gorge (where many freshwater crocodiles are found) and turns northwest through rugged country and plains, emptying into the Indian Ocean at King Sound. A tidal rise of 25 feet (8 m) is common at its mouth, which is 6 miles (10 km) wide. Its chief tributaries are the Hann and Margaret rivers and Christmas Creek. The Fitzroy traverses cattle and sheep country, and rice is grown on floodplains along its lower course. A dam at Camballin controls water for irrigation. There is little navigation because of sandbars and snags. Fitzroy Crossing, a settlement on the upper river, is in an area of large, permanent waterholes that sustain wildlife. Just above it is the Geikie Gorge National Park. The river was explored in 1838 by Lieut. John Lort Stokes of the HMS Beagle, who named it in honour of Capt. Robert Fitzroy, a former commander of the ship.