It flows from the eastern slopes of the Buffalo Range in the Australian Alps, joining with the Ovens River at Porepunkah.

[citation needed] The whole catchment is within the Alpine Shire and the Parishes of Buckland, Coolungubra, Harrietville, Maharatta, Morockdong, Panbullu and Towamba of the County of Delatite.

The Bureau of Meteorology has established automated river height monitoring at Upper Buckland and Harris Lane.

[citation needed] The major part of the catchment consists of generally fine grained felspathic sandstone beds up to one metre thick interbedded with dark grey shale and siltstone of Middle to Upper Ordovician age.

Along the middle reaches of the Buckland River there are alluvial and colluvial deposits of Pleistocene age consisting of clay, silt, sand, gravel and conglomerate.

Recent deposits of alluvium with a similar composition extend along the river channel for about 2.5 km upstream of the Buckland Bridge.