Ord River Floodplain

It lies within the Victoria Bonaparte IBRA bioregion and contains river, seasonal creek, tidal mudflat and floodplain wetlands, with extensive stands of mangroves, that support saltwater crocodiles and many waterbirds.

[2] The lower reaches of the Ord River extend from the Parry Creek floodplain northwards to the Cambridge Gulf.

From the mouth of the Ord River, the site extends northwards around the coast to include the False mouths of the Ord, consisting of a maze of deltaic channels, intertidal mudflats and low muddy islands, an area which receives only a little fresh water from small and ephemeral creeks.

Zonation is evident; mangrove species in the seaward zone form a woodland about 8 metres (26 ft) high, dominated by Sonneratia alba, Avicennia marina and Aegiceras corniculatum.

On the landward edge is a 4 metres (13 ft) high thicket of Avicennia marina, Ceriops tagal and Aegialitis annulata.

Other occasional species of mangrove include Xylocarpus moluccensis, Excoecaria agallocha and Camptostemon schultzii.

The lagoons are also an important site for shorebirds: several thousand little curlews and Oriental pratincoles, and hundreds of wood sandpipers have been counted.

When local rainfall is high the lagoons and other seasonal wetlands are major breeding areas for waterbirds in the Kimberley, with up to 77 species recorded in habitats associated with Parry Creek.

[2] The mangroves contain 12 of the 13 species of terrestrial bird restricted to such habitat, or to rainforest, in Western Australia, including the black butcherbird.