Wilcannia is a small town located within the Central Darling Shire in north western New South Wales, Australia. Located on the Darling River, the town was the third largest inland port in the country during the river boat era of the mid-19th century. At the 2021 census, Wilcannia had a population of 735.

The area lies in the traditional lands of the Barkindji people, who call the river "Baaka". The name Wilcannia is said to be derived from an indigenous term for either "gap in the bank where floodwaters escape" or "wild dog". Neither meaning has been linguistically verified.

In 1835, explorer Major Thomas Mitchell was the first European to reach the region, when he traced the Darling River to what is now Menindee.

In late January 1859, Captain Francis Cadell, in charge of the river boat Albury, entered the Darling River at its junction with the Murray and, after eight days travel, reached the Mount Murchison pastoral station, held by Hugh and Bushby Jamieson. Flour and other stores were delivered to the station and one hundred bales of wool were loaded for the return journey. Cadell's pioneering journey was the beginning of river boat transport on the Darling River (when river conditions allowed). The site of the future township developed as the location for the unloading and loading of river-borne cargo. The settlement was initially known as Mount Murchison, taking its name from the nearby pastoral run. As economic activity increased, the location attracted business and trades providing services and amenities to the surrounding stations.

In June 1866, the New South Wales Department of Lands formally declared "portions of Crown Lands" to be set apart as a site for the town of Wilcannia. Despite the official proclamation, the older name for the settlement persisted. In March 1867, a correspondent from the town wrote that: "the township of Mount Murchison is fast springing into importance, owing to the splendid country surrounding it, and which is fast being taken up for pastoral pursuits. We have public houses, stores, butchers' shops, boarding houses, a cordial manufactory in full operation, and a colonial ale brewery in course of erection".

The Post Office had opened as Mount Murchison on 1 January 1860. It was moved 5 km to the town and changed name to Wilcannia on 1 June 1868. There was, however, no telegraph office - "the want of which is sorely felt by the business people of the town, and in fact the whole district". The Telegraph line reached Wilcannia on 2 February 1878 and was combined with the Post Office on 16 March 1878 in a temporary location. The "handsome building" shown here was constructed from freestone in 1880 and was occupied on 27 June.

In 1871, the population of Wilcannia was 264, consisting of 176 males and 88 females. In January 1874, the township's first newspaper, the Wilcannia Times, began publication.

An account of Wilcannia in December 1874 described the buildings in the town as "on the whole being of a very poor description, principally small weatherboard places, many of them looking rather dilapidated". Three stores were operating in the township, as well as three public houses: the Mount Murchison Hotel, Wilcannia Hotel and Britannia Hotel. There were signs of increased commercial activity in the township: two banks, the Australian Joint Stock Bank and the Commercial Bank, had recently opened branches, and four stock and station agents had started businesses "within the last three months". Wilcannia had a public school, but no churches. There were two doctors, "but as it is a very rare thing to find them otherwise than drunk, they are worse than useless".