The Kamilaroi people, from whose language comes the word "budgerigar", inhabited the area before European contact. John Oxley passed through the Peel Valley in 1818 and described it as "it would be impossible to find a finer or more luxuriant country than its waters...No place in this world can afford more advantages to the industrious settler than this extensive vale". In 1831, the first sheep stations and cattle stations were formed, and in the same year the Australian Agricultural Company (AAC) was granted a lease of 127,000 hectares of land at Goonoo Goonoo, south of the present location of Tamworth, extending to present-day Calala.
In te 1830s, a company town began to develop on the Peel's southwest bank, the present site of West Tamworth. In 1850, a public town was gazetted on the opposite side of the river from the existing settlement. This town became the main town, called "Tamworth" after Tamworth, Staffordshire, represented at the time in parliament by Robert Peel. The town prospered, and was reached by the railway in 1878.
On 9 November 1888, Tamworth became the first location in the Southern Hemisphere to have electric street lighting, giving the city the title of "First City of Light".
Timeline
� 1818 � Explorer John Oxley passes through the area on his exploration mission. Names the river that now runs through the town: Peel River, after British Prime Minister Robert Peel, whose name is also that of the main street and one of the local high schools.
� 1831 � First sheep and cattle stations, namely Joseph Brown's 'Wallamoul' and William Dangar's 'Waldoo'. The exploring expedition led by Major Mitchell visited 'Wallamoul' in December 1831 on its way to the north-west.
� 1834 � First Australian Agriculture Company sheep brought to the Tamworth region.
� 1851 � The white population of the village of Tamworth was 254
