Pre-colonisation The town is located amid the traditional lands of the
Ngemba,
Murrawarri,
Euahlayi (Yuwaalaraay),
Weilwan, and
Barranbinya peoples, who have lived on the land for at least 2000 generations. The area has a long
Indigenous Australian history and was once a great gathering site for Indigenous people. The
Ngunnhu (
Brewarrina Aboriginal Fish Traps) are estimated to be over 40,000 years old. The name Brewarrina is derived from
burru waranha, a
Weilwan Weilwan name for a species of
acacia, Cassia tree, "Acacia clumps", "a native standing", or "place where wild gooseberry grows".
19th century The first British colonists arrived in the district in the early 1840s, with the brothers William and
Nelson Lawson (sons of
Lieutenant William Lawson) establishing two holdings – one called
Walcha and another called
Mohanna. Henry Cox (son of
William Cox) formed
Quantambone, while George Joseph Druitt (son of Major
George Druitt) established
Brewareena West. These pastoralists were the colonial elite with extensive other landholdings and employed managers to run their properties. For instance, William Lewis and then Cornelius "Con" Bride were the first managers for Quantambone. In 1859, possibly up to 300 or 400 Aboriginal people were massacred by white settlers in an event known as the
Hospital Creek Massacre, recollections of which vary. A memorial was erected by the local
Aboriginal Land Council near the site of the massacre. The town was first known as "Walcha Hut" but this later changed to "Brewarrina". In 1859 a riverboat called
Gemini, skippered by
William Randell, reached the town. This opened the possibility of developing the town as a port, and by the early 1860s Brewarrina was recognised as the furthest navigable point on the
Darling River. Brewarrina became a port for shipping wool to
Adelaide via the Darling and
Murray rivers. The town was formally surveyed and laid out in 1861 and proclaimed on 28 April 1863. "The
Wandering Jew represents an earlier maritime era and provides a direct link to the riverine heritage of Brewarrina. Its colourful history and repeated damage by fire is evocative of the dramas associated with riverboat travel". The 1870s were a boom time for Brewarrina. The courthouse was built in 1871. The Telegraph reached town in 1873. The
Mechanics Institute formed in 1873. The following year two hotels, two stores and the Commercial Bank all opened, and in 1875 The Parish of Brewarrina was formed and public school was opened. All this development was largely due to
Cobb and Co, which had a number of coach services passing through the town. There was a service from
Byrock, one from
Dubbo via
Warren and, in 1874, a direct service from Brewarrina to
Enngonia, north of Bourke. The
Barwon Bridge opened in 1888, the previous method of crossing the Barwon River was by punt and
pontoon. In 1901 the
Brewarrina railway line opened to Brewarrina from Byrock, on the
Nyngan to
Bourke line. The Brewarrina Line closed in 1974, and the wood-framed Brewarrina Station burned to the ground in 1980. The local telephone exchange was established in 1913. Brewarrina was used as a location for the Australian silent film
Moora Neya, or The Message of the Spear (1911).
20th century In the 1970s,
Essie Coffey, Tombo Winters (Thomas "Tombo" Martin Winters, –2004), and Steve Gordon co-founded the Brewarrina Aboriginal Movement (which, among other things, successfully campaigned for integration of the
open-air cinema in Brewarrina). They also co-founded the
Western Aboriginal Legal Service (WALS) in the 1970s. In January 1974, major floods hit the region, affecting Bourke, Walgett, and Brewarrina. The river was up at Brewarrina by 19 January, and was expected to peak at by the 25th. There were food shortages, and flooding made it impossible to bring machinery in to help build defences. Coffey, Winters, Gordon, and Phil Eyre were called upon by the local government and
State Emergency Service (SES) to mobilise the Aboriginal community to build
levees. After the SES would not guarantee boats for the Dodge residents, Winters pulled the Aboriginal workers off the levee. which led to a national media response. According to Winters, as soon as reporters arrived, many boats started appearing at Dodge City, but they left after the media left. This came a few days after the announcement by Prime Minister
Bob Hawke of a
Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, on 10 August 1987. Both the riot and the five-year trials that followed were widely covered by the press, and had continuing legal impact for years afterwards. opened in 2000 and closed in 2020. Although often referred to as Brewarrina jail or prison, it was situated about south at
Gongolgon. == Heritage listings ==