[5] English settlers named the lake after Princess Alexandrina, niece and successor of King William IV of Great Britain and Ireland.

Others include the Bremer, Angas, and Finniss rivers, all from the eastern side of the southern Mount Lofty Ranges.

[11] A 2020 review of hundreds of scientific studies relating to the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth has found that it was a freshwater ecosystem prior to European settlement of South Australia.

It is forty or fifty miles long by twelve or fifteen wide and the shores around it receded into the dim distance until they become invisible, in the way which we are accustomed only with ideas of salt water.

Supplied almost entirely by the Murray, the whole lake retains the muddy tinge of which I have spoken, and this sadly detracts from the otherwise beautiful appearances of this magnificent sheet of water.

[15] A weir was proposed near Pomanda Point where the river entered the lake, in order to protect upriver and Adelaide's water supplies should it become necessary to open the barrages, but this plan was dropped by the South Australian government after a campaign by the River, Lakes and Coorong Action Group highlighted the many environmental problems such a weir would cause.

The soils around the lake are relatively low in organic carbon, although good barley and vegetable crops may be produced.

The lake is a habitat for many species of waterbird, including migratory waders, or shorebirds, which breed in northern Asia and Alaska.