[2] It was a township on the coach route between the Lachlan and Darling Rivers (now the Cobb Highway), 50 km southeast of Ivanhoe near the junction with the road to Hillston.

The Desaillys employed a large cohort of men to fence, dig tanks and sink wells, "and imported the first centrifugal pump and steam engine in the Riverina".

[5] In about October 1868 Thomas Grace and John Kilbride began a coach service between Booligal and towns on the Darling River, extending as far as Mount Murchison township (Wilcannia).

The normal supply routes by teamsters were disrupted so flour, fodder and other essentials had to be brought by camel teams from Wilcannia to Ivanhoe and then on to Mossgiel by coach.

[15][16] In February 1904, not long after the drought had broken, Mossgiel was subject to a sand storm from the south-west that "raged at hurricane speed for sixty hours without intermission".

[18] In 1936 it was reported that "in consequence of the railway passing through Ivanhoe, 35 miles distant, Mossgiel township has dwindled so greatly in importance, that the cottage hospital and the only hotel have been closed".

The Mossgiel daisy occurs in scattered sites across the Riverina Bioregion, primarily in clay soils in association with bladder saltbush (Atriplex vesicaria) and leafless bluebush (Maireana aphylla).