The first people to live in the Murrurundi area were the Australian aboriginal people, the Wanaruah and the Kamilaroi. European settlement of the area began in the 1820s. Benjamin Hall, the father of bushranger Ben Hall started a cattle farm in the area in 1839. The town was started by the New South Wales government in 1840. In the same year, a local land owner - Thomas Haydon - started his own town called Haydonton. Benjamin Hall opened a butcher's shop in Haydonton in 1842. Ben Hall lived here until the age of 13. In 1913, the two towns were joined together to make the modern-day town of Murrurundi.