The 5,500-hectare (14,000-acre) lake is situated on the Yilgarn Craton, lying on alluvial and lacrustine valley-fill deposits in the flood plain of the Roderick River.

The surrounding country gently undulates among isolated hills and rocky outcrops.

[1] Wooleen is a flood plain lake made up of two claypans joined by a neck including associated marches.

[3] Filling is usually the result of rain events of a tropical origin that occur in autumn and summer; water depth may reach as high as several metres when full and can take as long as ten months to dry out again.

The vegetation in the lakebed and claypans is mostly shrubland with species such as samphire and lignum dominating, and low open woodland of Eucalyptus camaldulensis in the margins.