The Boolarra Folk Festival is held in the town every year in March and attracts music lovers from around Australia and the world.

The town is also infamous for producing the Boolarra strain of carp (Cyprinus carpio) which, after their release into the Murray River near Mildura, spread throughout Australia.

[2] The town is at one end of the Grand Ridge Rail Trail, which travels for 13 kilometres through temperate rainforest and dry sclerophyll forest in the Strzelecki Ranges.

The original railway branch line from Morwell to Boolarra, was opened on 10 April 1885, with the last train being run on 22 June 1974.

The hill country south and east of the Morwell River was opened up and a series of small communities, such as Budgeree, Gunyah, Ruyton Junction and English's Corner, began to flourish as goods and services flowed to and from Boolarra, which was the commercial and agricultural centre of the district.

In 1905, the Danish firm Heyman set up a butter factory in Boolarra, and dairying became the main industry of the district.

After World War II, residents banded together to create a Memorial Park, with the names of the town's fallen soldiers inscribed on its gates.

Modernisation of farming and improved transport links have brought changes to many small rural towns, with car travel to the larger commercial centres in the Latrobe Valley increasing.

In 2011, The Boolarra Australian Rules Football team, known as the Demons, won their first Mid-Gippsland premiership since 1997, defeating the Trafalgar Bloods.