[2] It was named in 1862 by Governor Dominick Daly after George Goyder, famed South Australian surveyor.

The portions of Port Wakefield and Bowmans north of the Wakefield River are also inside the hundred, and small parts of the localities of South Hummocks and Mount Templeton cross the western and eastern of boundaries of the hundred, respectively.

On 14 November 1878 an eastern strip of the Hundred of Goyder was annexed to the District Council of Balaklava along with the Hundred of Stow, following petitioning by resident landowners,[3] and became the new Stow ward of that council.

Goyder was a constituent ward of the Wakefield Plains council represented by a single councillor.

From 1997 following the amalgamation of Wakefield Plains and Blyth-Snowtown councils, the Hundred of Goyder was split between the much larger North and Central wards of Wakefield Regional Council, with Goyder and Beaufort falling in the Central ward and Nantawarra falling in the North ward.