Aboriginal Australians have lived in the lands around Innamincka for millennia, in what they call Wangkangurru country, the traditional home of the Yawarrawarrka and Yandruwandha people.

The traditional language region includes the local government area of the Shire of Diamantina in Far Western Queensland, extending into the Outback Communities Authority of South Australia towards Innamincka.

[14] The town was never very large, but had a hotel, a store and a police station which, until Federation in 1901, acted as the customs post for collecting inter-colonial duties[15] on cattle brought overland from Queensland into South Australia.

In 1928 the Australian Inland Mission (a part of the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia) built a hospital, the Elizabeth Symon Nursing Home.

Increased tourism and the discovery of gas and oil reserves in the late 1960s led to a company opening a hotel, a store and accommodation in the abandoned town.

[citation needed] In 1994, the Elizabeth Symon Nursing Home was restored by entrepreneur Dick Smith and the Australian Geographic magazine to be used as an interpretive centre for the National Parks and Wildlife Service South Australia.

Gray's Tree, believed to be the burial place of a member of the Burke and Wills expedition, is listed on the South Australian Heritage Register and located in the north-western rural area of the Innamincka locality.

Howitt found the remains of both leaders, Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills, and buried them close to where the town is located today.