The river rises to the east of the village of Mount Werong and generally flows westward towards its confluence with the Lachlan River at Wyangala Dam near Cowra.

[1] The river flows through freehold land as well as the Abercrombie River National Park, and provides habitat for platypus and rakali,[3] dropping 758 metres (2,487 ft) over its course of 130 kilometres (81 mi).

[4] The first European to discover the watercourse was explorer Charles Throsby on 5 May 1819, during an expedition from Sydney to the central west of New South Wales.

The river was named by Commissioner John Thomas Bigge on 22 October 1820.

[5] Early miners recovered up to 3 oz (85 g) of gold a day along the river,[6] and by 1862 between forty and fifty mining parties were at work at Milburne Creek, a minor tributary of the Abercrombie.