The Wenlock River is a major river of the Cape York Peninsula

Cape York Peninsula

Cape York Peninsula is a large remote peninsula located in Far North Queensland at the tip of the state of Queensland, Australia, the largest unspoilt wilderness in northern Australia and one of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth...

 in Far North Queensland

Far North Queensland

Far North Queensland, or FNQ, is the northernmost part of the Australian state of Queensland. The region, which contains a large section of the Tropical North Queensland area, stretches from the city of Cairns north to the Torres Strait...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It rises in the Great Dividing Range

Great Dividing Range

The Great Dividing Range, or the Eastern Highlands, is Australia's most substantial mountain range and the third longest in the world. The range stretches more than 3,500 km from Dauan Island off the northeastern tip of Queensland, running the entire length of the eastern coastline through...

, flows north-west through tropical savanna plains and wetland

Wetland

A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....

s, and enters the Gulf of Carpentaria

Gulf of Carpentaria

The Gulf of Carpentaria is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the Arafura Sea...

 on the western side of the peninsula at Port Musgrave

Port Musgrave

Port Musgrave is a shallow, almost enclosed, estuary, forming a bay on the western coast of the Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland, Australia. Two major rivers, the Wenlock and the Ducie discharge into it. The surrounding area is rich in freshwater swamps, while the estuary itself has...

 just north of Mapoon

Mapoon Aboriginal Mission Queensland

Mapoon Aboriginal Community is located at Port Musgrave, western Cape York in Queensland. A Presbyterian mission was established at Mapoon in 1891 with the aim of providing education and health services to the Aboriginal people. By 1907, under the Reformatories Act, it was operating as community...

.

The total catchment size is 7526 . The river has no water storage facilities built on it and there is little development within the drainage basin, resulting in a low population.

Much of the river is bordered by gallery rainforest

Gallery forest

Gallery forests are evergreen forests that form as corridors along rivers or wetlands and project into landscapes that are otherwise only sparsely treed such as savannas, grasslands or deserts....

s which provide habitat for animals such as the White-tailed Rat

White-tailed Rat

The white-tailed rat, Mystromys albicaudatus, also known as the white-tailed mouse, is the only member of the subfamily Mystromyinae in the family Nesomyidae...

, Spotted Cuscus and Palm Cockatoo

Palm Cockatoo

The Palm Cockatoo , also known as the Goliath Cockatoo, is a large smoky-grey or black parrot of the cockatoo family. It is the only member in subfamily Microglossinae and the only member of the monotypic genus, Probosciger...

. During the wet season

Wet season

The the wet season, or rainy season, is the time of year, covering one or more months, when most of the average annual rainfall in a region occurs. The term green season is also sometimes used as a euphemism by tourist authorities. Areas with wet seasons are dispersed across portions of the...

 the river floods, replenishing the wetlands. With some 48 species, the river contains the highest diversity of freshwater

Freshwater

Fresh water is naturally occurring water on the Earth's surface in ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, bogs, ponds, lakes, rivers and streams, and underground as groundwater in aquifers and underground streams. Fresh water is generally characterized by having low concentrations of dissolved salts and...

 fish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

 of all Australian rivers, many of which are shared with the rivers of southern New Guinea. They include Buffon's River Garfish

Buffon's river garfish

Buffon's river garfish is a species of fish in the Hemiramphidae family.-Distribution and habitat:Buffon's river garfish is found at the surface levels of rivers, estuaries and coastal waters throughout the Indo-West Pacific region, extending from southern China to northern Australia. It feeds on...

 and Fimbriate Gudgeon

Fimbriate gudgeon

The Fimbriate gudgeon is a species of fish in the Eleotridae family....

, as well as the Freshwater Sawfish

Largetooth sawfish

The largetooth sawfish , also known as the Leichhardt's sawfish or freshwater sawfish, is a sawfish of the family Pristidae, found in shallow Indo-West Pacific oceans between latitudes 11° N and 39° S. As its relatives, it also enters freshwater. This critically endangered species reaches a length...

 and more common species such as the Sooty Grunter

Long-nose sooty grunter

The long-nose sooty grunter is a species of fish in the Terapontidae family. It is endemic to Australia.-Source:* Wager, R. 1996. . Downloaded on 4 August 2007....

, Saratoga

Gulf saratoga

The gulf saratoga, Scleropages jardinii, is a freshwater bony fish native to Australia and New Guinea, one of two species of fishes sometimes known as Australian arowanas, the other being the saratoga...

 and Barramundi

Barramundi

The Barramundi , also known as Asian Seabass, is a species of catadromous fish in family Latidae of order Perciformes. The native species is widely distributed in the Indo-West Pacific region from the Persian Gulf, through Southeast Asia to Papua New Guinea and Northern Australia. Known in Thai...

. The river is also home to one of Queensland’s largest breeding populations of the Saltwater Crocodile

Saltwater Crocodile

The saltwater crocodile, also known as estuarine or Indo-Pacific crocodile, is the largest of all living reptiles...

.