The headwaters of the river rise south of Mount White in the
McIlwraith Range in the
Great Dividing Range. It then flows westwards forming a series of braided channels and continuing through the uninhabited country until merging with the Kendall river near the Kulinchin Outstation and discharging into the
Gulf of Carpentaria. The river is joined by eight
tributaries including the
Kendall River, Sandlewood Creek, Station Creek, Potlappa Creek, The Big Spring, First Spring, Christmas Creek and the Kendle River. A variety of landscapes are found within the catchment including tropical
savannah woodlands, open grasslands, beach ridges, wetlands and
paperbark stands. The river has a mean annual discharge of . The river was named in 1864 by the
pastoralist Francis Lascelles Jardine after the explorer, doctor and politician
Arthur Todd Holroyd. The
traditional owners of the area are the
Wik,
Bakanh,
Thaayorre and
Kaanju peoples who inhabited the
drainage basin for thousands of years. ==See also==