King Sound

---

title: "King Sound" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["sounds-(geography)-of-western-australia", "kimberley-coastline-of-western-australia", "imcra-meso-scale-bioregions"] description: "Gulf in Kimberley region of Western Australia" topic_path: "geography" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Sound" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Gulf in Kimberley region of Western Australia ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox body of water"]

Field	Value
name	King Sound
image	King Sound WA NASA World Wind.jpg
caption	Landsat image of King Sound using NASA World Wind
coordinates
type	sound
part_of	Indian Ocean
rivers	Fitzroy River, Lennard River, Meda River, Robinson River, May River
catchment	21,315 km
date-built
date-flooded
length	120 km
width	50 km
area
depth
max-depth	50 m
volume
shore
elevation
temperature_high
temperature_low
pushpin_map	Western Australia
::

| name = King Sound | native_name = | other_name = | image = King Sound WA NASA World Wind.jpg | alt = | caption = Landsat image of King Sound using NASA World Wind | image_bathymetry = | alt_bathymetry = | caption_bathymetry = | location = | group = | coordinates = | type = sound | etymology = | part_of = Indian Ocean | inflow = | rivers = Fitzroy River, Lennard River, Meda River, Robinson River, May River | outflow = | oceans = | catchment = 21,315 km | basin_countries = | agency = | designation = | date-built = | engineer = | date-flooded = | length = 120 km | width = 50 km | area = | depth = | max-depth = 50 m | volume = | residence_time = | salinity = | shore = | elevation = | temperature_high = | temperature_low = | frozen = | islands = | islands_category = | sections = | trenches = | benches = | cities = | pushpin_map = Western Australia | pushpin_label_position = | pushpin_map_alt = | pushpin_map_caption = | website = | reference = ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Derby_jetty_King_Sound.JPG" caption="Derby]] wharf on King Sound"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/ISS-40_King_Sound_on_the_northwest_coast_of_Australia.jpg" caption="King Sound from [[International Space Station"] ::

King Sound is a large gulf in northern Western Australia. It expands from the mouth of the Fitzroy River, one of Australia's largest watercourses, and opens to the Indian Ocean. It is about 120 km long, and averages about 50 km in width. The port town of Derby lies near the mouth of the Fitzroy River on the eastern shore of King Sound. King Sound has the highest tides in Australia, and amongst the highest in the world, reaching a maximum tidal range of 11.8 m at Derby. The tidal range and water dynamic were researched in 1997–1998.

Waters within the sound are generally turbid. The turbidity is associated with the erosion of tidal flats.

Geography

Open waters of the sound cover 2325 km2. Other rivers that discharge into the sound include the Lennard River, Meda River, Robinson River and May River. King Sound has a catchment area of 21315 km2. King Sound is part of the Canning Basin. The climate is semi-arid and tropical with a strong monsoonal influence.

King Sound is bordered by the island clusters of the Buccaneer Archipelago to the East and the Dampier Peninsula to the West.

The mean depth of King Sound is 18 m. The mouth of King Sound features a channel that is 50 m deep and 20 km wide.

History

The traditional owners and original inhabitants of the area are Indigenous Australians, namely the Nimanburu, Njulnjul, and Warwa peoples.

The first European to explore the sound was William Dampier who visited the region aboard in 1688.

Noted surveyor Phillip Parker King surveyed the coastline in 1821 and named the area Cygnet Bay. The area was later visited by John Stokes and John Wickham aboard in 1838. The sound was later named after King.

In the 1880s it was one of the sites in the Kimberleys of a short-lived gold rush.

Doctor’s Creek, in the south of King Sound, has been the site of various proposals for tidal range energy plants since the 1960s. In 2013, the Derby Tidal Power Project from Tidal Energy Australia was given environmental approval. The 40MW tidal power station is expected to cost $375 million to construct.

References

References

1. link. (18 February 2007 . Retrieved 7 January 2007)
2. (1998). "Water and fine sediment dynamics in King Sound, Western Australia". Australian Ocean Data Network.
3. (September 1981). "Long-term erosion of the tidal flats King Sound, north western Australia". Marine Geology.
4. "Buccaneer Archipelago and King Sound, Australia – north west coast, Western Australia". Australian Hydrographic Service.
5. (April 2003). "Dynamics of the turbidity maximum in King Sound, tropical Western Australia". Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science.
6. (2011). "Ausanthrop – AusAnthrop Australian Aboriginal tribal database".
7. (1827). "Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia". John Murray.
8. (2008). "Where on the coast is that?". Hesperian Press.
9. (6 September 1886). "KING SOUND AND CAMBRIDGE GULF KIMBERLEY, W.A.". National Library of Australia.
10. (20 May 1886). "THE KIMBERLEY RUSH.". National Library of Australia.
11. (June 2021). "Tidal range resource of Australia". Renewable Energy.
12. Collins, Ben. (2 July 2021). "North-west Australian tidal power project in final stages of federal environmental approvals". [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]].

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::