In the early 19th century some pioneering European settlers began occupying the land, for timber-cutting (mainly ironbark and Australian red cedar), lime production and grazing.

A wooden structure was built in the 5-hectare land donated by Sabas Buenacosa, a pioneering settler of Tacurong, to welcome 250 high school boys and girls to a Catholic education.

Permanent settlement commenced around 1875 with pioneering settlers such as George and Margaret Cotton who raised a family of nine children at the property they called St Columba.

Gunplay and treachery among the territory's pioneering settlers.

Whilst pioneering settlers knew that ticks posed a threat to their dogs and perhaps to themselves, the paralysis tick was not scientifically identified until 1899 (by Neumann).

Convergence was the first translation floated out: all the pioneering settlers would converge, with Israelis now fencing off suicidal intruders.

Other pioneering settlers soon followed, such as John Lush and William Robinson.

From the 1960s onwards, the region saw pioneering settlers moving in from neighbouring Kerala.

It is named after the hometown of a pioneering Scottish settler, Peter Smith.

The pioneering settlers of the area were ordered to leave and paid little from the company for their properties.