Wilcannia is a small town located within the Central Darling Shire in north western New South Wales, Australia.

As economic activity increased, the location attracted business and trades providing services and amenities to the surrounding stations.

[11] An account of Wilcannia in December 1874 described the buildings in the town as "on the whole being of a very poor description, principally small weatherboard places, many of them looking rather dilapidated".

He, the laundry man, performs his work very well, and gets paid very handsomely for it.” This same report claimed the population of Wilcania at the time to be around 1,000 people with 70 of these being Chinese.

[17] A July 1884 report stated that Wilcannia had a population "of about 1200", and was described as a township "of well-laid-out streets and good buildings", situated "in the centre of a large sheep country".

In addition to the well-constructed Post and Telegraph Office, several of the stores ("notably Frew, Wright, and Co., J. Palmer and Co., and Cramsie, Bowden, and Co.") were described as "not only extensive but of considerable architectural beauty".

A visitor to the town described the river scene in 1890: At the time of the 1891 census the municipality of Wilcannia had a non-Aboriginal population of 1,287 (775 males and 512 females).

[25] In December 1939 Wilcannia was described as "merely a shopping centre for the wide district, although people travelling into Queensland and lonely sections of New South Wales often rest there".

Wilcannia is located within the Darling Riverine Plains Bioregion (IBRA classification, Department of Environment), consisting of landscapes adapted to flooding.

[citation needed] The surrounding area is very sparsely settled by pastoralists who have large land holdings, used primarily to run sheep.

On 9 November 1950, a severe thunderstorm with damaging winds and large hail the size of cricket balls struck the town.

Two people were injured, dozens of homes lost their roofs and nearly every house in town was damaged due to the large hail.

[39] Wilcannia is served by NSW TrainLink coaches between Dubbo railway station and Broken Hill, which stop in town and at the Emmdale Roadhouse down the Barrier Highway.

From the 2016 Census, Wilcannia had a population of 549 with 407 (74.4%) people being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent, mostly from the Barkindji nation.

[46] Predominantly populated by Aboriginal Australians, Wilcannia has received national and international attention for government deprivation of its community's needs, and the low life expectancy of its residents.

[51] In 2021 the town was one of the worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic in New South Wales, and the government's refusal to ban tourists from the area to preserve the health of its struggling residents was criticised.

[52][53] In September 2021, the New Matilda website published an investigation into allegations of discrimination against Wilcannia residents during the COVID-19 pandemic, citing leaked documents from Central Darling Shire Council.

[55] In March 2017 the BBC, in response to complaints about the biased and misleading view portrayed, investigated the claims and suspended the production company pending the outcome of the review.

[60][61][62] A parliamentary inquiry into New South Wales' handling of the pandemic was told that community leaders warned authorities a year earlier about how Wilcannia's overcrowding situation could lead to a crisis if the virus entered the town.