The town was first established as a railway station in the early 1900s on the Eastern line to Kalgoorlie.

Firewood companies used the timber lines to collect firewood to provide the heat energy needed by condensers that were used to make potable water from saline water.

A progress association was formed following a unanimous decision by the townspeople in 1907 and a committee was elected at the same meeting.

[2] Ned Hogan, later premier of Victoria, worked as a timber-cutter in the district and was secretary of the Kurrawang Firewood Workers' Union in 1911.

[3] Victoria Cross recipient John Carroll was also a resident of Kurrawang for several decades and worked on the timber lines as a guard.