There is a parish of the County of Harden of the same name, which comprises a part of the area of the locality.

When the official map of Thomas Mitchell was made in 1834, there was already one settler house shown at what was then called Cunningham's Plains.

[3] Cunningham's Plains was the name of an immense rural estate of around 60,000 acres, which was not sub-divided into smaller properties until the early 20th century.

A village of Cunningar was proclaimed in 1857 and town lots were put up for sale in the same year.

carried out by the 'Cunningar Company', It seems that was at a mine, in the south of the locality in the area known as MacMahon's Reef, which originally dated from the 1870s.

[7] Cunningar lies on the Main Southern railway line, and it has a grain siding and storage facility.