 The Tambo River rises in the Bowen Mountains, below Mount Leinster in the Victorian Alps, part of the Great Dividing Range, about east of .The river flows generally south by south southeast by south southwest, joined by sixteen tributaries including the Little and Timbarra rivers, before reaching its mouth and emptying into Lake King, one of the main lakes in the extensive Gippsland Lakes system.Within the lake, the Tambo River forms confluence with the Mitchell River, west of the village of , with the Mitchell River draining into Bass Strait southwest of , in the Shire of East Gippsland.