The lake is located within the boundaries of the 'Strzelecki Creek Wetland System', a DIWA wetland, and the Strzelecki Desert Lakes Important Bird Area.

[2][3] It is named after the explorer Augustus Charles Gregory, who first passed by it in 1858.

[1] Originally Lake Eyre was named Lake Gregory by B. H. Babbage, but the names were modified by Governor Richard Graves MacDonnell, who preferred to name the former after the famous explorer who first investigated the region twenty years prior, Edward John Eyre.

The lands around the lake are used for pastoralism, with both sheep and cattle grazing the surrounding plains.

Dulkaninna Station is located near the south west corner of the lake.