There is an understorey of tall grasses, including species of Sorghum, Heteropogon, Themeda, Chrysopogon, Aristida, and Eriachne.

The woodlands have a dense tree canopy and can form impenetrable thickets, with many climbing vines and a sparser understorey of forbs, small shrubs, ferns, and mosses.

These woodlands and thickets, like the monsoon forests of the adjacent Kimberley and Arnhem Land ecoregions, are refuges for many of the fire-sensitive species characteristic of Australia's rainforest flora.

[2] Native mammals include the spectacled hare-wallaby (Lagorchestes conspicillatus), which is especially common in the lancewood-bullwaddy thickets, and the northern nailtail wallaby (Onychogalea unguifera) in grasslands and eucalypt woodlands.

[2] Other native mammals include the agile wallaby (Macropus agilis), common wallaroo (Osphranter robustus), antilopine kangaroo (Osphranter antilopinus), short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus), common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula), rock-haunting ringtail possum (Petropseudes dahli), and sugar glider (Petaurus breviceps).

Three ground-foraging birds – the apostlebird (Struthidea cinerea), hooded robin (Melanodryas cucullata picata), and grey-crowned babbler (Pomatostomus temporalis rubeculus) – are associated with lancewood-bullwaddy woodlands and thickets.

[6] The black-tailed goanna (Varanus tristis) and giant frog (Ranoidea australis) are native to the ecoregion.

The Ord River Regeneration Reserve (ORRR) was established in 1960 to reduce soil erosion into the planned Lake Argyle.

The project included contour cultivation and reseeding degraded and barren areas along the Ord River above the dam site.