The rail had a rufous to chestnut crown and neck with heavy black streaking, grey cheeks, throat and breast, with the rest of the upper body streaked black and brown.

The bill was long and slender, pink with a darker tip; the eyes brown to red, and the legs and feet pinkish grey.

[4] The rail had a restricted distribution in the far south-west of Western Australia, from Margaret River to Albany, and inland as far as Bridgetown.

Its core habitat was the dense vegetation fringing, or emerging from, saline, brackish and freshwater wetlands, though it could also sometimes be found in grassland or in thick coastal scrub.

[1] Always scarce, the subspecies became extinct because of the destruction and modification of its wetland habitats, mainly through drainage and clearance burning for agriculture and settlement.