The Lyons reaches its confluence with the Gascoyne River near the township of Gascoyne Junction near the southern end of the Kennedy Range.

The river descends 398 metres (1,306 ft) over its 561-kilometre (349 mi) course.

The Lyons River is known as Mithering by the local Aboriginal Australians, the Malgaru.

The first European to come upon the river was explorer Francis Gregory in 1858.

[4] He named the river after the naval hero Admiral Sir Edmund Lyons.