The port town of Derby lies near the mouth of the Fitzroy River on the eastern shore of King Sound.

[3] King Sound is bordered by the island clusters of the Buccaneer Archipelago to the East and the Dampier Peninsula to the West.

[4] The traditional owners and original inhabitants of the area are Indigenous Australians, namely the Nimanburu, Njulnjul, and Warwa peoples.

Noted surveyor Phillip Parker King surveyed the coastline in 1821 and named the area Cygnet Bay.

[9][10] Doctor’s Creek, in the south of King Sound, has been the site of various proposals for tidal range energy plants since the 1960s.