The site that would become Bobadah is part of the traditional lands of Wangaaypuwan dialect speakers (also known as Wangaibon) of Ngiyampaa people.

The other name of the village, Carpina, is also of Aboriginal origin and said to mean "a small bird's egg found here in great numbers".

[9] After settler colonisation, the site of Bobadah was within the Parish of Cameron in the County of Flinders, about 10km south of the homestead of the famous "The Overflow" sheep station.

The deposit outcropped on a ridge to the north of the future village site, over about one kilometre, and contained ores of gold, copper, silver, lead, and zinc.

[8][11] However, in April 1897, a surveyor, O’Connor, laid out a plan for a village to be called Carpina, at the same general location.

There were issues with treating the complex ores—containing silver, gold, copper and lead ores and pyrite—and an early attempt to use a water-jacket blast furnace around 1899 was an expensive and complete failure.

The mine was an early adopter of the cyanide process, and the grinding its ores in a ball mill, but had difficulties applying these technologies.

[25][26] An attempt in 1899 to auction 110 residential lots in Bobadah met with little interest, perhaps due to their cost[27] or to the doubtful future of the mine.

It was said of Bobadah that, "The decadent buildings, general dilapidation of surroundings tell the sad story of years of decline.

[44] Although there was grazing in the area, Bobadah's remoteness, lack of employment, and the economic gravity of other settlements caused it to fade away.

[45][46] North of the hall, in 2006, were an open-cut pit, a tunnel and a ventilation shaft, two concrete cyanide tanks, cyanide-process sand tailings, and some other remnants of previous mining activity.