It is on the bank of the Murray River, the border between New South Wales and Victoria, opposite the Victorian town of Wahgunyah.

The name could have derived from a Wiradjuri word referring to the curra pine which yielded gum used by Aboriginal people to fasten the heads of spears to the shafts.

The town in conjunction with nearby town Rutherglen has an Australian Rules football team (Corowa-Rutherglen), competing in the Ovens & Murray Football League,[4] and a rugby league team, the Corowa Cougars, who compete in the Goulburn Murray competition.

In about 1843 Foord and a man named Bould examined the country about the present site of Wahgunyah and recommended it to John Crisp, who was the first European to settle in the area.

[8] A report published in The Sydney Mail in October 1879 stated that Corowa township consisted of one thoroughfare containing the business houses.

It was postulated that the reason for the failure of this township to develop was the fact that only one approach to the bridge from that point could be obtained.

In 1893, a company was formed to explore the area, by sinking bore holes looking for alluvial gold in a deep lead deposit.

[25] Cutting drives out from the shaft to the bore sites proved difficult, due to the hard rock encountered.

[26] Small amounts of gold were produced, by mid 1902, but shareholders were told that there would be more capital needing to be raised to make the mine payable.

[28] With its capital being exhausted, before reaching the wash, the failure of the pumping engine's crankshaft dashed the hopes of long-suffering shareholders.

[29] By early 1903, the company had been reconstructed, apparently with an injection of capital from English shareholders, and new machinery was being erected.

It had sold 2,033 ounces of gold, from April to November 1904, but costs took much of the revenue; the balance sheet of the company was, by then, only £100 in surplus.

[36] On Saturday 12 October 2024, roughly 50 members of the National Socialist Network lead by Thomas Sewell rallied in the town's centre as a response to a local piggery's takeover by multinational meat processor JBS.

The group displayed a banner reading "White Man Fight Back" due to JBS's employment of immigrant workers.