During the planning of the railway to be constructed between Mullewa and Wongan Hills in 1912, the local progress association requested that a townsite be surveyed at the siding that was to be built in the present townsite. The name of the siding was chosen as Pintharika in 1913 and the townsite was gazetted later the same year.[3]
The area's main industry is in agriculture: particularly cereal cropping and raising livestock. The town and the area was flooded and many sheep were killed in 1948 by the hail and rain from violent thunderstorms.[4]
The name of the town is taken from a nearby well which was surveyed and recorded in 1910. The name is Aboriginal in origin but its meaning is not known.