The nearby Goulburn River (into which the Wollar Creek flows) was an important route for Aboriginal people between the inland region and the Hunter Valley.

The grant of land had been promised to Fitzgerald by Sir Thomas Brisbane, Governor of New South Wales, in February 1824.

By the early 1830s Fitzgerald was a wealthy private landholder, with land grants in the Gulgong and Cassilis districts (including his holding on Wollar Creek).

[6] Wollar Creek in the vicinity of Fitzgerald’s property became a favoured camp-site for stockmen travelling to Mudgee and Gulgong.

At about the same time a wooden Anglican church was erected on Crown land on the opposite side of Wollar Creek to the township.

[11] In July 1900 after two indigenous men, Jimmy Governor and Jack Underwood, murdered members of the Mawbrey family and a governess at Breelong near Gilgandra, Wollar suddenly became a focus of attention by police authorities and the colonial press.

A visitor to Wollar soon after the Breelong murders noted: “When we rode into the town we met men armed to the teeth, riding round looking out sharply for any sign of the blacks”.

In the end five “able bodied” indigenous men, including Jack Governor, were locked up in the Wollar police station “for their own and the public safety”.

The St. Laurence O’Toole Catholic Church, in "restrained Gothic style of roughly-hewn stone", was designed by the architect Harold Hardwick of Mudgee.

The walls were constructed of quarry-faced sandstone cut from nearby Willoughby’s Knob, the stone blocks loaded onto a dray and transported to the building site.

The land that was acquired was described as having “millions of tons of shale, very rich in oil”, from which the company intended to extract petrol.

[23] By June 1939 the Australian Imperial Shale Oil Company’s freehold land at Wollar, as well as buildings, machinery and equipment were advertised for sale by the receivers, Mackenzie Harris & Co. of Sydney.

[26] The American parent company Peabody, self-described as “a leading coal producer, providing essential products to fuel baseload electricity”,[27] has been an important contributor to organised climate change denial.

In October 2013 Wilpinjong Coal was accused of repeatedly breaching its Environmental Pollution License by operating heavy machinery during adverse weather conditions.

The Mudgee District Environmental Group cited photographic evidence provided by Wollar residents “showing high levels of dust pollution leaving the mine site and blowing through the village”.

[33] In April 2021 Deputy Premier Barilaro announced that the land surrounding Wollar village was released “for potential coal exploration”.

[35] Mining companies supported over 5,600 jobs and injected a $1.3 billion into the Central West region where Wollar is located in 2021/22 financial year.