Major Thomas Mitchell went through this area on his way back to Sydney in 1836. One of the men with him, a convict named James Taylor, was drowned while trying to cross the Broken River. After Mitchell many farmers arrived with sheep to make new farms. The Reverend Joseph Docker (1793 - 1865) started a farm called ""Benalta"" in 1838 but later settled on the run Bontherambo, near Wangaratta. The name came from the Taungurung Australian aboriginal word meaning "musk duck". The name later changed to Benalla.