Ord River - Naming

Naming

It was named in honour of Sir Harry St. George Ord GCMG, CB, RE, Governor of Western Australia from 1877 to 1880, by Alexander Forrest on 2 August 1879. Forrest's journal states.

We are still 300 miles from the telegraph line, and cannot of course tell what difficulties may not yet be be in store for us, so I feel bound to push on, at the same time no one can regret more than I do that I am unable to follow this magnificent stream to its mouth which I have no doubt will be found in Cambridge Gulf–the whole of its waters in that case being in Western Australian territory. I have named this river the Ord, after His Excellency the Governor of Western Australia, who has taken so great an interest in this expedition. Marked a tree F 158.

The headwaters of the Ord river are located below the 983 metre Mount Wells and initially flows east and around the edge of Purnululu National Park before heading north through Lake Argyle then passing west of Kununurra and discharging into the Cambridge Gulf, which is at the southern extremity of the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf, Timor Sea. The river has 35 tributaries of which the five longest are Bow River, Nicholson River, Dunham River, Panton River and Negri Rivers.

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