It has 20 tributaries and its catchment occupies an area of 93,829 square kilometres (36,228 sq mi), within the Canning Basin and the Timor Sea drainage division.

The river was subsequently given its European name by Lieutenant John Lort Stokes in February 1838 after Captain Robert FitzRoy R.N.

The Fitzroy River flows for 733 kilometres (455 mi) from the Wunaamin-Miliwundi and Mueller Ranges into King Sound south of Derby.

[citation needed] The catchment area occupies an area of 93,829 square kilometres (36,228 sq mi)[3] and is situated within the Canning Basin and the Timor Sea drainage division extending from Halls Creek and the Wunaamin Miliwundi Ranges in the east through to Derby and King Sound to the west.

To the west are properties including Liveringa, Myroodah, Mount Anderson, Mowla Bluff, Yakka Munga, and Yeeda Stations.

The 1903 flood washed away telegraph lines and "great numbers of cattle and sheep were drowned", with bodies of animals later found hanging in trees.

This bridge could be closed for several months at a time during the wet weather and travellers were then forced to use a flying fox, which operated about 200 metres south of the crossing.

The flow rate down the 15 km-wide flood plain at Fitzroy Crossing was estimated to be 60,000 cubic metres per second,[21] making it the biggest rush of water in any river in Australia in recorded history.

Associate Professor David Morgan of Murdoch University said that the fish had died due to heat and a severe lack of rainfall during a poor wet season.