The Oakover River is a river

River

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...

 in the Pilbara of Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

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The headwaters of the river rise North of the Wadara Range and West of the Saltbush range near Junction Well then flows in a northerly direction. The river continues North running parallel to the Gregory Range until merging with the Nullagine River

Nullagine River

The Nullagine River is a river in the Pilbara of Western Australia.The headwaters of the river rise South of Bonney Downs and then flow in a northerly direction. The river crosses the Marble Bar road at Nullagine and continues to flow in a north easterly direction until it merges with the Oakover...

 to form the De Grey River

De Grey River

The De Grey River is a river located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.The river rises South of Callawa at the confluence of the Oakover and the Nullagine rivers and flows in a west north westerly direction eventually discharging into the Indian Ocean via Breaker Inlet about 80 km North...

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The river flows through many permanent pools on its journey including; Toocoonaragee Pool, Carawine Pool, Yilgalong Pool and Ngumberramooring Pool.

There are 22 tributaries of the river including; Davis River, Stag Arrow Creek, Woodie Woodie Creek, Vanadium Creek, Yownama Creek and Yilgalong Creek.

The first European to discover the Oakover was the explorer Francis Thomas Gregory

Francis Thomas Gregory

Francis Thomas Gregory was an English-born Australian explorer and politician.-Biography:Gregory was born at Farnsfield, Nottinghamshire, England, and was the younger brother of the explorer Augustus Gregory...

. Fellow explorer Peter Warburton

Peter Warburton

Colonel Peter Egerton Warburton CMG was an English explorer who made one particularly daring expedition from Adelaide to cross the centre of Australia to the coast of Western Australia via Alice Springs in 1872.The younger brother of Rowland Egerton-Warburton, Warburton was educated at home and...

 crossed the river strapped to a camel

Camel

A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as humps on its back. There are two species of camels: the dromedary or Arabian camel has a single hump, and the bactrian has two humps. Dromedaries are native to the dry desert areas of West Asia,...

 toward the end of his trek across the Great Sandy Desert

Great Sandy Desert

The Great Sandy Desert is a desert located in the North West of Western Australia straddling the Pilbara and southern Kimberley regions. It is the second largest desert in Australia after the Great Victoria Desert and encompasses an area of...

 in 1873.

The traditional owners of the area are the Njamal or Nyamal peoples.