King Sound
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 metres at Derby. The tidal range and water dynamic were researched in 1997–1998.
Other rivers that discharge into the sound include the Lennard River, Meda River, Robinson River and May River.
King Sound is bordered by the island clusters of the Buccaneer Archipelago to the East and Cape Leveque to the West.
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.
Philip 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 is named after the noted surveyor, Philip Parker King.
In the 1880s it was one of the sites in the Kimberleys of a short-lived gold rush.
