[4] In November 1824, Australian-born Hamilton Hume and British immigrant William Hovell passed close to the spot where Gundagai now stands,[5] near the future site of Tumut.

Bishop Edwards noted that following on the path of the explorers "Hume and Hovell, the first Gundagai settlers found a wonderful land on which to establish a town, which was gazetted in 1838 but until 1850, relied on ministry from Yass".

[7] A local settler named Warby is recorded as having "followed Hume and Hovell's tracks to the junction of the Murrumbidgee and Tumut Rivers" and having taken "up a pastoral lease of 19,200 acres ... at a rent of thirty-three pounds per annum.

"[8] Charles Sturt travelled through the area in 1829 at the start of his voyage in search of an inland sea, then believed to exist in outback Australia.

[9] At the time of Sturt's 1829–1830 journey, he found several squatters in the district, all beyond the "limits of location": Henry O'Brien at Jugiong, William Warby at Mingay and the Stuckey brothers, Peter and Henry at Willie Ploma (the name of which is derived from the Wiradjuri word Willeplumma used to describe the area around what is now South Gundagai) and Tumblong.

Peter Stuckey at Willie Ploma is regarded as the first British pastoralist to take up land in the true Gundagai region.

[10] In April 1835, William Adams Brodribb junior moved to New South Wales and became a partner in a cattle station at Maneroo.

[19] The first move to establish Gundagai as a township was in 1838, when plans for the new settlement of "Gundagae [sic] on the Murrumbidgee, about 54 miles beyond Yass ..." were advertised for viewing at the office of the Surveyor-General in Sydney.

Gundagai Aboriginal elders, Jimmy Clements and John Noble, attended the 1927 opening of the new Federal Parliament House in Canberra by the Duke of York (later George VI).

The Crown Commissioner for the Murrumbidgee District, Henry Bingham, praised the heroic actions of Aboriginal people at Gundagai in rescuing settlers from the 1844 flood.

Edward True dragged a light skiff several miles over hills to the rescue site and managed to save several men from drowning.

Four men held up Robert Phillips and took a horse, the property of William Hutchinson of Murrumbidgee, who had possession of the land to the immediate north of Gundagai.

[41][42] On one occasion in 1843, a gang of five bushrangers, including one called "Blue Cap",[43] held up and robbed Mr Andrews, the Gundagai postmaster and innkeeper.

[47] A plot to rescue Jack-in-the-Boots, whose real name was Molloy, from police custody while he was being transferred from Gundagai to Yass gaol, was discovered.

[50] In 1863, the bushrangers Stanley and Jones were arrested at Tumut after they had allegedly stolen saddles at Gundagai and hatched a plan to rob Mr Norton's store.

[57] In 1880, bushrangers held up the Chinese Camp at Gundagai then fled on horseback towards Burra, a locality known to harbour louts and for the ferocious fires that roar through the area.

[61] Trooper Edmund Parry, killed in an encounter with Ben Hall's gang near Jugiong, is buried next to the grave of Senior Constable Webb-Bowen.

Moonlite's request was not granted by the authorities of the time, but his remains were exhumed from Rookwood Cemetery and reinterred at Gundagai near to the unknown location of Nesbitt's grave in January 1995.

[53] In the 1950s, bushrangers reappeared in the Gundagai area, jumping into the trailers of heavy transports moving along the Hume Highway and throwing contents out to nearby accomplices.

Likewise the Spring Flat goldfield adjacent to the North Gundagai cemetery resulted in a sizeable tent township appearing there.

[84] The equally interesting story of how Gabriel's glass-plate negatives came into the National Library's possession is found in the NLA's 'Gundagai Album'.

Summers are hot, sunny and prone to dry periods; winters are cool and cloudy with many rain days and occasional sleet, though settling snowfalls are rare.

[90] The latter firm has produced work for major construction projects, including building steel spans for the Olympic Stadium in Sydney.

Both mines struck the orebody in quartz reefs along serpentine/diorite contact zones with finds of gold telluride (of bismuth origin) also found.

[105] Local monumental mason Frank Rusconi, carved a miniature Baroque Italian palace from 20,948 pieces of marble collected from around New South Wales.

It was named after Bill Sheahan, who was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Yass from 1941 to 1950 and for Burrinjuck from 1950 to 1973 and held various ministerial portfolios.

Gundagai also has a long and strong oral tradition or folklore related to both Aboriginal and European events, as the location was an important gathering place and river crossing for teamsters ("bullockies"), bush travellers, swagmen, shearers and drovers,.

The idea gained real momentum at the unveiling of the statues of Dad, Dave, Mum and Mabel at the Snake Gully Service Centre in November 1979 when Ted Tout, one of the principles of the centre mentioned the possibility of a Snake Gully Cup being run as a picnic race meeting similar to the popular Bong Bong Cup meeting.

[citation needed] The Snake Gully Flying Handicap remained as the feature race of the club's November meeting for the next two years.

[150] The demerger of the councils began in August 2022[151] and was expected to be completed in 2024, in time for the local government elections scheduled in that year.