The WA Government has launched groundwater surveys in the hope of unlocking major new irrigated agriculture sites.

Soil surveys last year found that about 30,000 hectares of an area known as the Bonaparte Plains could be suited to farming.

The nearby Ord Irrigation Scheme currently supports farms covering about 18,000 hectares, so the addition of the Bonaparte sites would be a massive expansion.

Government research officer, hydrologist Don Bennett, said initial results were positive.

“We're getting a sense there's plenty of very good quality groundwater under that area and fairly high-yielding zones within that aquifer that you could potentially pump from,” he told the ABC.

“We're two sites into an eight-site program and we've been up there drilling with the crew from the Northern Territory's Department of Environment and Natural Resources, because the aquifer in the Bonaparte area extends east across the border, so they've got an interest as well.

“I guess the big question at the end of the day is how much water you could actually extract for irrigated agriculture without having an impact on the surrounding environment.”

Mr Bennett said the Bonaparte Plains could not tap into the relatively nearby Ord Irrigation Scheme, so any development would require a new water resource.

The information will be used to build a groundwater model that could predict potential impacts and risks across various scenarios.

The parcel of land belongs to the company currently developing Ord Stage 2.