The Weraerai and Kamilaroi peoples are the earliest known inhabitants of the area, and the town's name is said to come from an Aboriginal word for "rising sun", "long spring", or "water hole".

The town, and in particular the Moree Baths and Swimming Pool, are known for having been visited by the group of activists on the famous 1965 Freedom Ride.

This historic trip through northern NSW was led by Charles Perkins to bring media attention to discrimination against Indigenous Australians.

Moree is a major agricultural centre, noted for its part in the Australian cotton-growing industry, which was established there in the early 1960s.

Moree is noted for artesian hot spring baths that are renowned for their reputed healing qualities.

[3] In 1832, Major Thomas Mitchell led a large expedition to the district after escaped convict George Clarke told the colonial authorities of the supposed existence of a great river called the "Kindur" that flowed through the region.

In January 1832, Mitchell crossed what is now known as the Mehi River around ten kilometres east of where the town Moree is now located.

Both groups of squatters and the New South Wales Mounted Police conducted punitive expeditions against the local Kamilaroi in what was termed at the time "a war of extermination".

For example, a large massacre of Aborigines occurred at John Cobb's Gravesend station in 1837, while in 1838 Major James Nunn and his mounted police killed at least forty at Waterloo Creek.

They were pursued by gangs of colonists, including one led by John Henry Fleming, a free settler of 'Mungie Bundie' station; in June 1838 he initiated the Myall Creek massacre.

Those Kamilaroi who stayed in the region continued to be killed, including nine who died in a massacre by Charles Eyles at Pallamallawa, also in 1838.

[6] The Kamilaroi also suffered deaths from new infectious diseases, to which they had no immunity, displacement, and lack of access to life-sustaining resources.

[7] In 1851 James Brand and Mary Geddes arrived with their Aboriginal servant girl Jane Laney.

[8] As closer settlement proceeded, agriculture emerged as a thriving industry on the fertile flood plains.

During 1894 construction of the Federation-style lands office started; it ended that year with the completion of the ground floor.

The bore was sunk to 3,000 ft (910 m) deep in order to provide water for agricultural pursuits, but was proved to be unsuitable for this purpose.

[8] Wheat cultivation increased after World War II, and a flour mill was built at Moree in 1951.

[10] Moree was one of the destinations of the famous 1965 Freedom Bus ride, a historic trip through northern NSW led by activist Charles Perkins to bring media attention to discrimination against Indigenous Australians.

The racial segregation of rural Australia was brought to the attention of urban Australians, in particular at the Moree Baths and Swimming Pool.

Geoffrey Wilmot, Warren Ledingham, Steven Delamothe and Ian Bowen, armed with semi-automatic rifles and shot-guns, wounded several Aboriginal people, and killed nineteen-year-old Ronald McIntosh.

The so-called Aborigines Protection Act 1909 enabled the government to conduct forced removals of children from the reserves, for education and welfare.

To avoid this, Aboriginal families often left the reserves in order to escape white oversight, setting up fringe camps around towns to survive.

[7] "Moree Aborigines' Station" was in 1953 described as "a little over two miles west of the town on the left bank of the Mehi".

[17] In 2007 the Moree Plains Council announced plans for a $14m upgrade to the hot thermal baths.

[1] Moree is home to artesian hot spring baths that are famous for their reputed healing qualities.

[26] Moree possesses a semi-arid-influenced humid subtropical climate (Köppen: Cfa), with hot, relatively wet summers and mild, dry winters with cool nights.

Peaking just 10 centimetres (3.9 in) above the February 1976 floods at 10.69 metres (35.1 ft), the water inundated hundreds of houses in and around Moree.

The whole of north Moree was told to evacuate the day before the flood peak, including the nearby villages of Yarraman, Gwydirfield, Bendygleet, Pallamallawa and Biniguy.

[40] In March 2021, heavy rainfall affected North and East NSW, causing major flooding.

(0.4m below the 1955 record of 10.85 metres or 35.6 feet)[41] The total rainfall for March 2021 was 263.4 millimetres or 10.37 inches[42] as against an average of 62.8 millimetres or 2.47 inches [43] In October 2022, Moree experienced major flooding with the Mehi River peaking at 10.50 m (34.4 ft)[44][failed verification] Some 4,000 residents had been told to evacuate in advance of the rains.