[4] The town was founded in 1902 to service the local Stanford Merthyr and Pelaw Main collieries and mining communities.

There is no history of any Aboriginal inhabitants of this area, other than a visit to the outskirts by a small group prior to most of the building of the town.

The first European landholder was Benjamin Blackburn who was granted 400 acres on the Banks of Wallis Creek at Richmond Vale.

More mines were opened in the early 1900s, supplanting those older pits at Newcastle where the Australian Agricultural Company enjoyed almost a monopoly.

Richmond Main Colliery, also in the Kurri Kurri vicinity, was once the State's largest producer, at 3,400 tons per day, and which reputedly had the deepest shaft permitting access to two separate coal seams, the Scholey shaft, named after its founder, John Scholey.

The 660 MW Snowy Hydro Hunter Gas Power Station is being built at the site, operating 2% of the year.

A new red-brick station building and platform was built at Stanford Merthyr and opened in January 1909.

The station at Stanford Merthyr fell into disuse although the line from the colliery which passed through it was still in operation via the Richmond Vale Railway to Hexham.

The event celebrates the mullet haircut and other aspects of self-identified bogan culture (such as pub rock music).

[15] Local art includes more than 55 murals painted around the town and its environs depicting the history of the region and also recent events.