[3] The Dawson River rises at the eastern end of the Carnarvon Range in Boxvale State Forest and adjacent private lands.

This is a rugged forested area of sandstone gorges in which the river is an ephemeral stream with some permanent, spring-fed waterholes.

The middle section of the Dawson River flows generally east from the Baroondah crossing to Taroom on the Leichhardt Highway and northeast to the Glebe Weir, where the river turns north and traverses the Precipice Range through Nathan Gorge, another rugged area of wooded sandstone ranges.

[2] Several weirs have been constructed along the lower Dawson river to provide water for cotton and dairy farming in the region.

In the 1920s, shortly after the First World War, Australian Labor Party politician Ted Theodore (1884-1950) launched an irrigation program on the Dawson River for returning soldiers.