[1] Established in the 1860s (when the usual spelling was "Cowwar"), the town serviced the area around Walhalla during the Victorian gold rush.

The post office opened on 1 February 1869 as Upper Heyfield and was renamed Cowwarr in 1870.

[2] Cowwarr was a wayside station on the former Traralgon-Maffra-Stratford railway, which opened in 1883.

[3] The Cricket Club Hotel,[4] was first established in 1880 as a wooden building; the current concrete Art Deco building was constructed in 1930, as was the Cowwarr Public Hall opposite.

The town is supported by district farming, including dairy farming, irrigated from the Rainbow Creek, which runs past Cowwarr, and the Thomson River.