Named after early colonial explorer and Surveyor-General George Evans, the town is famous for its late-Georgian and early-Victorian buildings with relatively untouched streetscape, a popular Sunday market and as a host to the annual national Penny Farthing Bicycle Championships.

The site lies at the interface of country originally belonging to the Ben Lomond and North Midlands Nations (most likely the Panninher Clan).

[3][4][5] The ethnographic record in regards to Aboriginal populations in the North Midlands of Tasmania is scanty, as many of the original inhabitants were displaced or did not survive the first colonial occupation of the South Esk Valley in the early 1800s.

[6] The Evandale region also appears to have encompassed an Aboriginal route from the Tamar Valley to the Lake River[7] and it is likely that this area was a hunting ground and meeting point for local clans of the North Midlands Nation.

The settler David Gibson was reported to have left out slaughtered stock for aborigines to roast (or at least to feed their hunting dogs).

[9][5] The Aboriginal clans were severely depleted during this time but actively began a campaign of guerilla attacks on settlers in the Midlands region that became known as the Black War.

[5][9] During the Black War, in the 1820-1830s, members of the Stoney Creek (Tyerrernotepanner) Clan of the North Midlands Nation, with remnant members of the Ben Lomond Nation, continued to make raids on farms south of Evandale and further up the South Esk River,[5][10][11] but by then traditional tribal life in the Evandale region had long since vanished and the remnant people of this area retreated to lands to the North East, were waging a desperate guerilla campaign, or were living a fringe existence in Launceston.

[8] In the first two decades of the 19th century, settlement in the Midlands progressed up the South and North Esk rivers from Launceston and the Evandale region consisted of fertile alluvial flats already partially cleared for hunting purposes by Aboriginal fire stick burning.

In 1824, he built the now-demolished homestead of 'Cambock' on the village's outskirts, noted for its bell tower to warn workers of fire or impending attack from aborigines or bushrangers.

[8] Anthony Cottrell was the Constable and Poundkeeper (stock controller) at Gordon Plains just south of Evandale when he was raided by hostile Aboriginal clansmen in 1827[8] and it was no surprise that stockmen were rarely seen without a musket at hand.

[16] Military posts were established upstream at Glen Esk, downstream at the Perth punt and at Campbell Town, primarily as defence against the Aboriginal threat.