In April 1837, the squatter, William Henry Yaldwyn, sent John Coppock and Edward Eyre from Yass to the Port Phillip District to find a suitable run (sheep and cattle pasture).

Consequently, Yaldwyn arranged a lease of about 60,000 acres of grazing land from the government in Sydney, for an annual fee of ten pounds.

The occupation of their land by Europeans was resisted by the Djadjawurrung, who regularly scattered flocks of sheep and killed them for food.

The armed and mounted party tracked the Djadjawurrung to their camp in a gully now known as Waterloo Plains.

The Chief Protector of Aborigines in the Port Phillip District, George Augustus Robinson noted in his journal:They fired from their horses; the blacks were down in the hole.

[8]in 1839, Yaldwyn sold Barfold to Thomas Thorneloe, the managing partner of a syndicate including John Montagu and Sir George Arthur, a former Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen's Land.

A Barfold post office opened on 1 November 1861, some distance to the south of the present township.

[9] Barfold is the birthplace of William Watt, who served two terms as Premier of Victoria during 1912–14 before moving to federal politics.

He was acting prime minister of Australia from April 1918 to August 1919, while Billy Hughes was in Europe, and Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives from 1923 to 1926.