[1] The name Yambuk is an word from the language of the local indigenous inhabitants, thought to mean "red kangaroo", "full moon" or "big water".

[4][5] Shell middens in the limestone cliffs to the east of the town indicate that Aboriginal people had lived in the area for at least 2300 years.

Annie Baxter's diary notes 13 occasions where European settlers formed armed and mounted hunting parties to attack and harass the Gunditjmara people.

[10] Those events were part of the significant conflict between Aboriginal people and Europeans that occurred around Yambuk at the time.

In 1921, legislation was passed in the Victorian Parliament authorising the extension of the Port Fairy railway line to Yambuk, a distance of 11+1⁄2 miles (18.5 km).