The river flows generally south by west by south, joined by the Big, Rich, and Jack rivers and sixteen minor tributaries, flowing through a series of reserves and through Lake Curlip, before reaching its confluence with the Snowy River, within the Lake Corringle-Lake Wat Wat Wildlife Reserve in the Shire of East Gippsland.

[4] An area of 17 square kilometres (6.6 sq mi) of wetlands along the lower reaches of the river has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because it supports a small breeding population of the endangered Australasian bittern.

[5] In its upper reaches, the river is traversed on multiple occasions by the Bonang Highway.

At some time in 1850, 15 to 20 Gunai people were killed on the banks of the Brodribb River, a few miles south east of Orbost.

The killing was reported to have been revenge for the murder of station cook Dan Dempsey, for lacing a gift of flour to local Gunai people with arsenic.