The Kent River is over 100 kilometres long, draining the southern edge of the Yilgarn Plateau, where the flat drainage is dotted with salt lakes, swamps and areas of internal drainage. The average rainfall for the catchment is 600mm.

The River flows into the Owingup Swamp, a wetland system on the coastal plain, before continuing into the Irwin Inlet.

The five sites were sampled in October 2007.

All sites recorded Night Fish and Western Pygmy Perch, while also sites apart from KEN01 recorded Western Minnow.

Balston's Pygmy Perch were found at site KEN03 and Shrimp were found at sites KEN02 and KEN08a. Marron and three other freshwater crayfish species (Cherax preissii, Cherax crassimanus and Cherax quinquecarinatus) were also recorded in the river system.

Pictures of these can be viewed in the gallery.

All sites sampled on the Kent River were considered to be in pristine condition and were in A grade condition.

Water samples were taken once from each site so while they help describe the water quality at the time of sampling they can not be used to explain the overall condition of the river for the rest of the time.

The Kent River is a brackish system, with a conductivity reading between 8.8 - 11.5 ms/cm, while the Styx River and Nile River tributaries are fresh.

The sites on Styx River and Nile River were acidic (4.6 - 5.7 pH) and all sites on the Kent River were neutral (7.1 - 7.2 pH).

The turbidity level of each of the sites was low and ranged between 0 and 4.4 ntu.

The level of total phosphorus at each of the sites was low. The level of total nitrogen was low on the Styx and Nile Rivers and was moderate for all other sites.