[8] In a letter to the Surveyor General, dated 12 October 1959, Louise Gardiner, Secretary of the Nomenclature Advisory Committee wrote: "'Cununurra'...means 'Black Soil'.

"[9] It was given its English name 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.

[10] Forrest's journal states: We are still 300 miles from the telegraph line and cannot, of course, tell what difficulties may not yet 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.

[11] Then Minister for Lands and Agriculture, F J S Wise, in 1937 wrote ...we set a plan in motion during the past twelve months in connection with the establishment of experimental areas on Ivanhoe Station somewhere near Carlton Reach.

[12][citation needed] It would be another two years before the Commonwealth Government became involved, with the establishment of a joint CSIR and Western Australia Department of Agriculture facility.

[16] The construction of the Ord River Diversion Dam started in late 1960 and was officially opened in July 1963 by then Prime Minister, Robert Menzies.

[17] By November 1960 the first 81 hectares (200 acres) had been chain-dozed and cleared, a channel and pumps were in place, to irrigate the first commercial rice crop that had been planted on the new pilot farm.

This was almost three years before the completion of the Ord River Diversion Dam and main channel, so the pilot farm irrigated by pumping water from the Carlton Reach waterhole.

The Ord scheme created Lake Argyle, which is Australia's largest dam reservoir, covering an area of 741 square kilometres (286 sq mi).

[21] In 2016 the Auditor General for Western Australia reported that "The sustained social and economic benefits underpinning the decision to proceed with this $529 million investment have not been realized.

[23] A turnaround in fortunes may be on the horizon, with the second half of the 2010s seeing new crops being planted and fresh fruit markets in both South-East Australia and Asia being exploited with greater economic success.

[26] In 2012 the release was approved of an additional 74 square kilometres (29 sq mi) of Stage 2 Goomig lands for irrigated agriculture, while the same year the West Australian Department of Agriculture conducted soil and water investigations of the Cockatoo Sands (red loamy sands) near the Ord River Irrigation Area, Kununurra.

As part of the Water for Food government program, the Department of Agriculture also investigated an additional 300 square kilometres (120 sq mi) of Cockatoo soils north of Kununurra for possible expansion.

[27] The Ord River Dam Hydro Scheme is a privately funded, owned and operated power system in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia.

[25] CSIRO research conducted in 2008 found that the water quality in the lower reaches of the river was good and that planned activities were not an ecological threat.

[28] Some concerns have been raised that the large body of water created by the dam could attract Asian insects and birds which may transmit dangerous viruses such as avian influenza.

[18] Sugar, which was produced from the late 1990s until the end of 2007 in the ORIA was trucked to Wyndham where it was exported to a Korean-owned food manufacturing plant in Surabaya, Indonesia.