river in southeastern New South Wales, Australia, rising in the Gourock Range of the Eastern Highlands (25 miles 【40 km】 west of Goruya) and flowing northward mainly through a precipitous gorge. At Braidwood, it emerges into a broad basin that supports pastoral activities. Continuing northward to a point 20 miles (32 km) east of Goulburn, the river turns east, enters a second gorge, and flows through a northern section of the Morton National Park and then past Nowra and Bomaderry to empty into the Shoalhaven Bight of the Pacific Ocean, 75 miles (121 km) southwest of Sydney, after a course of 206 miles (332 km). The Shoalhaven, the chief tributary of which is the Mongarlowe, was visited in 1797 and named by the explorer George Bass.