At the time of the arrival of the First Fleet, the Indigenous Australians residing in the area were of the Eora tribe, whose numbers spanned along the Georges River, from Botany Bay to present-day Liverpool.

The first sustained contact between members of the First Fleet and the Eora tribe occurred on 20 January 1788 within the boundaries of the present City of Hurstville at Lugarno and Oatley, at Lime Kiln Bay on the Georges River, as recorded by Lieutenant Philip Gidley King in his diary.

Although first contact with the Indigenous Australians led to a small altercation where a spear was thrown and a shot fired, later in the day when the party rowed up Lime Kiln Bay towards present day Mortdale they were greeted in a friendly manner by both men and women, and what could only be described as Australia's first picnic took place as food and drink were shared between the two peoples.

After a long summer afternoon of mutual contact and conviviality the British sailors rowed back to their ship moored at Botany Bay (see Haworth R.J. 2012, Journal of Australian Colonial History, vol.

Captain John Townson was granted 1,950 acres (7.9 km2) of land which is now occupied by the suburb of Hurstville and part of Bexley.

In the same year, in the area now known as Riverwood land grants were made to Jane Trotter, Mary Shepley, Charles Doudall, and James Ryan.

In 1809, Captain John Townson was granted an additional 250 acres (1.0 km2) in the area now occupied by Kingsgrove and Beverly Hills.

When Lord died, the land became the property of John Rose Holden and James Holt of the Bank of NSW.

It was built in 1893 by John Sproule, a local builder and alderman of Hurstville Council, who had acquired the land two years previously.

It has been restored and adapted for commercial use, as well as serving as the base for the Hurstville Archival Research and Local Studies Centre.

[6][7] In 1895, Ann Sproule bought land on the opposite side of Queens Road from the Winn brothers of Newcastle, New South Wales.

[10] Hurstville's residential developments are a mixture of low-density housing, medium-density flats, and high-density apartment buildings.

The commercial area is centred on the main street, Forest Road, on the northern side of Hurstville railway station.

The commercial developments also extend to surrounding streets concentrated from Queens Road to The Avenue and on the southern side of Hurstville Railway station, around Ormonde Parade.

Hurstville has a wide variety of restaurants and cafes and is known as a major dining destination in the St George area of Sydney.

The administrative offices of the Georges River Council are located in the Hurstville Civic Centre in MacMahon Street.

According to the museum's website, it "is home to high quality exhibitions, a diverse range of public programs and a collection of approximately 5,000 objects and artworks from the local area.

The first wave of migrants included Greeks and Italians who began moving south from Sydney's inner-city suburbs.