The river is named after George Fletcher Moore, an Irish lawyer who arrived in the Swan River Colony in 1830 and explored the region in 1836. Like many other colonists Moore suspected the existence of an inland sea, and though this did not exist, his explorations and reports of good soil encouraged the colony's northern expansion. By coincidence, the
Aboriginal name for the river is "Maura". Adjacent to the walkway, designed for the New Norcia Heritage Trail by the Main Roads Department, are old floodgates built by the monks from local stone. Boards were inserted in the slots and an artificial lake created.