Benalla: History
Prior to the European settlement of Australia, the Benalla region was populated by the Taungurung people, an Indigenous Australian people. A 1906 history recounts that prior to white settlement "as many as 400 blacks would meet together in the vicinity of Benalla to hold a corrobboree". The area was first explored in 1824 by Hamilton Hume and William Hovell, who recorded an agricultural settlement called "Swampy". The expedition was followed by that of Major Thomas Mitchell in 1834.
An attack by indigenous people on the camp of shepherds working for George and William Faithful became known as the Faithful Massacre; eight settlers were killed in the incident. Following the massacre, in 1839 a police station was established to provide protection of over-landers, and the name of the settlement became Broken River.
The post office opened on 1 December 1844 originally named Broken River. A bridge was built over the Broken River in 1847 and the following year the town was surveyed. In 1849, it was proclaimed a town. It was proclaimed a city in 1965.
In 1936, the Benalla Centenary Race was held.