The area is about 70 kilometres north of Geraldton, and includes the small Ogilvie Nature Reserve.[3]
The town was named by 1916 as a farming community,[4] likely to have been named after Andrew Jameson Ogilvie (–8 October 1906),[5] the land owner of the nearby Murchison House Station. Over time the locale was serviced by a railway siding of the same name.
The Ogilvie State School was in existence by 1917,[6] while two acres of land was set aside for a tennis court in the same year.[7] The Ogilvie Agricultural Hall was opened in May 1919.[8] This public hall was used for dances, a church, and as the local school.[9][10] By 1953, the hall also had a supper room and nursery.[2]
The Ogilvie and District Branch of the Primary Producers' Association was re-formed in July 1925.[11] Its representations included to the Western Australian Minister for Agriculture for emus to be declared vermin following continued widespread crop destruction.[12]
Tennis continued to be an important community activity, with new tennis courts constructed by and opened in December 1946.[13] In that year, the wheat and barley crops were only a moderate harvest, an abundance of emus, but a notable impact of foxes on lambing stock.[13]
Efforts were made to form a fire brigade in 1952.[14]
