The town has a number of 19th-century heritage buildings, including the former Stanley Grammar School, which now provides private bed and breakfast accommodation.

[4] The area was settled by a number of Protestant families who founded a Bible Methodist Church in the township.

Francis Treloar, formerly a miner at Burra, bought 117 acres of land near Watervale in 1851, for a winery which he named Spring Vale.

[5] Hughes Park Estate, extending over 3,000 hectares, is three km from Watervale in the Skilly valley, where the first stone homestead was completed in 1860.

It was built by Sir Walter Watson Hughes, who owned the Walleroo and Moonta copper mines and founded Adelaide University from his profits.

The township boasts a general store and Post Office, Hotel, Primary School, CFS unit, Anglican and Uniting churches, a garage, a small number of local businesses, wineries, and a variety of recreational facilities at the "Watervale Soldiers' Memorial Park" (tennis club, tennis courts and a bowling green).

The Watervale Foresters Hall, which in more recent years had been used by the community for meetings, art classes and a children's playgroup, had by 2009 fallen into disrepair.