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History of River Names - E


The following information is a summary of the origins for river names in Western Australia. Please select the first letter of the river you wish to see.
Please note: The names of all river names are being added progressively to the database.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M

EAST HARDING RIVER – the East Harding River is a distributary of the Harding River from which it takes its name, and separates from the Harding just downstream from Woodbrook Homestead and flows generally north east for about 26km into salt marshes and mangroves adjacent to the coast at Sherlock Bay. The name was first recorded by Assistant Surveyor James Cowle in 1866.


EAST STRELLEY RIVER - the East Strelley River is the eastern tributary branch of the Strelley River. It is 97km long, and joins with the West Strelley River east of Port Hedland to form the Strelley River.


EDMUND RIVER – the Edmund is a tributary of the Lyons River, which is itself the largest tributary to the Gascoyne River. The river rises near the Barlee Range and flows generally south west for 85km to join the Lyons. The river was probably named by Surveyor General j S Roe during the plotting of a plan of the explorations of surveyor/explorer F T Gregory in 1858. It is named after Admiral Sir Edmund Lyons G C B, Baron Lyons of Christchurch (1790-1858), a diplomat and naval hero who played ‘a bold and brilliant part with his ship, the ‘Agamemnon’ in bombarding the forts at Sebastopol and landing troops in the Crimean War’.


ELVIRE RIVER – the Elvire River is a127km long tributary of the Ord River in the east Kimberley, and was named by surveyor H F Johnston in 1884 after Margaret Elvire Forrest, the wife of John Forrest, then Surveyor Genaral and Commissioner of Crown Lands.


ERNEST RIVER – the Ernest is a minor 4km long tributary of the Brunswick River in the Darling Range east of Brunswick Junction. It was possibly named by surveyor H M Ommanney in the early 1840’s, after Ernest Augustus (Hanover), Duke of Brunswick-Luneburgh and King of Hanover, 5th son of King George III.


ERNEST RIVER – the Ernest River is a 69km long tributary of the Forrest River, an east Kimberley River that flows into the Timor Sea in Joseph Bonaparte Gulf. It was named by C A Burrowes, surveyor to the Victoria Squatting Co., in 1886, but it is not known after whom it was named.


ETHEL RIVER – the Ethel River is a 48km long tributary of the Ashburton River. The river was surveyed by surveyor C M Denny in 1893, and he recorded the name of it as ‘Ethel or Coobarra River’. Further surveys were carried out in July 1896 by surveyor W F Rudall who called it the ‘Ethel River’.


EYRE RIVER – the Eyre River is a minor south coast stream of 12km lengthwhich flows into the Southern Ocean at Cheyne Bay north east of Albany. It was named by surveyor F T Gregory in 1850 after the explorer Edward John Eyre, the first to travel by land around the Great Australian Bight from South Australia to Albany in 1841. Eyre would have crossed this river.

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