Located on what is traditionally the land of the Kaurna, an Aboriginal people, the first pioneers arrived sometime between 1845 and 1869 due to the rapid expansion of grazing, then farming to the north of the area.

Baillière's South Australian gazetteer and road guide, published in 1866, contains a brief description of "Hummock's Run"[3] located 28 miles (45 km) north of Port Wakefield.

This farmland, according to the publication, contained the farming stations of Barunga, Bumbunga and Wokurna and consisted of "salt lakes and lagoons, dense scrub, with mallee, pine and bushes, grassy plains and saltbush, well grassed spurs and hills, with oaks and wattle on the Broughton River.

This permanent waterhole and scrub-covered hill were then known as territory occupied by aboriginals, but claimed by Paddy Gleeson, founder of Clare[7] as his 'Black Point Run'.

[19] The Government only started showing interest in the settlement as late as 1869 when it planned to establish various new towns throughout the district and to divide the land into much smaller holdings.

[20] Jervois named the town after one of the members of the Snow family who were his cousins and lived on Yorke Peninsula (which lies immediately west and southwest of Snowtown).

It is officially considered that the town was named after Thomas Snow,[21] who became Jervois's aide de camp when he received his posting in South Australia.

In 1923 the Long Plains railway line extension reached Snowtown[25] and, in 1925, was completed to Redhill,[26] bringing an increase of rail traffic to the town.

St Canice's Catholic Church was built in 1936 to designs by Adelaide architects Herbert Jory and Stanley Pointer in Romanesque Revival style.

[27] Salt Lake school once existed at the southern extremity of the locality about 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) east of Augusta Highway.[when?

Snowtown was home to a weekly newspaper called the Broughton Star (5 March 1909 – 5 July 1912) which was founded by James Barclay.

Other primary industries include woolgrowing, livestock production and salt mining (at the nearby Lake Bumbunga saltworks).

[37] In 2008, a monument in the form of a 44-metre wind turbine blade was installed at the intersection of Fourth Street and Railway Terrace East.

[38] The main north–south road running just outside the western edge of the town was designated to form part of Australia's Highway 1 in 1955.

[48] The school provided many entries into Royal Adelaide Show livestock and horticulture competitions, especially the sheep and beef cattle categories.

[citation needed] As of 2006[update] pupils were also able to study via distance education through the Open Access College at Marden (Adelaide) or via larger neighbouring schools to increase their range of subject choices.