[4][3] Six major open cut coal mines and one underground dot the landscape surrounding the town and provide its main employment opportunities.

[2][3] Coal deposits were discovered there by Ludwig Leichhardt on his expedition from Moreton Bay to Port Essington (now Darwin, Northern Territory) in 1845.

[citation needed] Blackwater is located close to the site of the infamous double murder of two police constables at the hands of gold commissioner Thomas Griffin.

[13] Griffin killed the two troopers, John Power and Patrick Cahill, on 6 November 1867 on the banks of the Mackenzie River near the present day site of Blackwater's Bedford Weir, which is located approximately 25 kilometres north of the town.

[13] Blackwater attracted national media attention in 1980 after violent scenes occurred outside the Capricorn Hotel on 1 August 1980, when angry striking coal miners confronted Federal Treasurer, John Howard.

[16][17] Howard had arrived in Blackwater with Deputy Prime Minister, Doug Anthony, and Queensland Treasurer, Llewellyn Edwards, to negotiate with union officials in an attempt to end the protracted industrial action.

[16][17] A police officer sustained a suspected broken nose, a camera operator was punched in the face and eggs were thrown.

[18][19][20] In 1999, a production crew from ABC Television's documentary series Australian Story arrived in Blackwater to film jazz musician Don Burrows' visit to the town.

[28] On 23 November 2008, a fabridam barrier at the Bedford Weir on the Mackenzie River near Blackwater suddenly failed, causing 6,000 megalitres of water to surge downstream into a popular recreational area where people were swimming.

[29] The Bedford Weir's operator SunWater Limited and the manufacturer of the fabridam wall, Trelleborg Engineered Systems, were held responsible for the failure.

[30] In 2013, SunWater pleaded guilty to a breach of the Workplace Health & Safety Act in the Rockhampton Industrial Magistrates Court and was fined $80,000, but no conviction was recorded.

[33] In 2016, it was reported that Nelani Koefer's mother had filed a claim in the Rockhampton Supreme Court suing SunWater and Trelleborg for $1.48 million.

[34] In 2020, it was feared that the Blackwater community was potentially exposed to COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia after it was confirmed on two separate occasions that there had been positive COVID-19 test results.

In the first incident, it was reported on 11 April 2020 that a Rockhampton-based worker employed at BHP's BMA coal mine at Blackwater had tested positive to COVID-19.

[37][38] In the second incident, it was confirmed on 27 May 2020 by the Queensland Government that 30-year-old mine worker Nathan Turner had died at his Blackwater home and had subsequently tested positive to COVID-19.

[39] At the time, Turner was believed to have been the youngest person in Australia to have died from COVID-19, a fact that generated significant national media interest.

[45] It also prompted almost 10,000 people to sign a petition on Change.org demanding Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young apologise to Turner's family.

[46] Palaszczuk and Deputy Premier Steven Miles both publicly apologised to Turner's family while Young said she believed nothing could have been done differently and was confident the correct actions were taken to protect the Blackwater community following the initial positive test result.

[59] The Blackwater branch of the Queensland Country Women's Association meets at the QCWA Hall at 1 Ardurad Road.

[64] Australian television personality, actor and comedian Josh Thomas was born in Blackwater in 1987, but moved with his family to Brisbane soon after.