The Ngarrindjeri, an Indigenous Australian people, have lived around the lake and the wetlands for thousands of years. The first Europens to find the lake were people hunting seals along the south east coast of Australia in 1828. In 1830, the explorer Charles Sturt reached the lake by boat after a long journey down the Murrumbidgee, the Darling and the Murray Rivers. Sturt named the lake after Princess Alexandrina, who later became Queen Victoria.