Time line

5000 - 3000 BC	Estimated age of rockart at Mutawintji ranges from 8000 to 5000 years old. During this time, Mutawintji Historic Site was an important "cultural tourism" site, visited by tribes or language groups from surrounding areas. These groups included Wilijalia from Broken Hill area, Paruntji to the north-east, Malyangappa and Wanyuparluku to the west, Kungatitjito from the north, and Wonkumura from near the Queensland border. Mutawintji was also used for shelter and as a reliable water supply, because of the water stored in the rock holes.
5000 - mid 1800s	Aboriginal people have continuous occupation of Mutawintji National Park area and surrounding area.
1788	European contact with Australia.
1829	Explorer Charles Sturt was the first white person on upper Darling River.
1830	Small pox epidemic in lower Murrary River area led to huge reduction in local population.
1860s	Explorers Burke and Wills passed through Mutawintji on their disastrous Victorian Exploring Expedition through inland Australia.
1861 & 1863	Ernest Giles, later an explorer of inland Australia, travelled through Mutawintji whilst looking for suitable grazing land. He left inscriptions at Thaakalatjika Mingkana in 1861 and 1863.
1863	Mutawintji visited by Commissioner of Crown Lands for Albert (Wilcannia) District, who engraved the Government insignia of broad arrows on top of Mount Wright.
1870s	Growth of the pastoral industry in the Broken Hill district. Henry Raines established at grazing property at "Mootwingee".
1880	Gold discovered at Mount Browne.
1881	Silver mined nearby at Umberumberka and Thackaringa.
1883	Mining began at Broken Hill.
1884	Crown Lands Act passed.
1895	Opals discovered at White Cliffs.
1901	Western Lands Act passed.
1905	Rockholes Hotel built to accommodate passing trade between Broken Hill and opal mining town of White Cliffs.
1907	Grazing property "Ravendale" established.
1916	Construction of second Rockholes Hotel.
1918	Rockholes Hotel delicensed.
1920	Barrier Field Naturalists Club established.
1925	The Field Naturalists Club of Broken Hill petitioned New South Wales Government to "proclaim the whole area in which carvings and paintings occur a reserve".
1927	Thanks to the efforts of the Barrier Field Naturalists Club, Mutawintji (or, as it was called to at the time, Mootwingee) was declared crown land reserve for the protection of Aboriginal sites.
1964	Fossils or archaeocyathes recorded for the first time near Mount Wright.
	Yellow-footed rock wallaby first recorded near Mutawintji, in the Coturaundee Ranges.
	National Parks and Wildlife Service took over management of Mootwingee Historic Site, which consisted of 486 hectares.
1970	Official opening of Visitors Centre by Mr M.L. Baillieu, Chairman of North Broken Hill Mines.
1974	National Parks and Wildlife Act (NSW) passed.
1970s	Colony of yellow footed rock wallaby "rediscovered" in Coturaundee Ranges.
1979	Coturaundee Nature Reserve established, primarily for the protection of yellow-footed rock wallaby.
1982	National Parks and Wildlife Service purchased Gnalta and Mootwingee, old sheep grazing properties, and added them to Mootwingee Historic Site to establish Mootwingee National Park, consisting of 68,912 hectares.
1983	Western Division Land Council organised the blockade of Mutawintji National Park, from 4 to 8 September 1983; which coincided with the Centenary celebrations of Broken Hill Aboriginal Land Rights Act passed.
1984	Plan of management studies began for Mootwingee National Park, Mootwingee Historic Site and Coturaundee Nature Reserve, undertaken by Allen Fox and Associates.
1996	National Parks and Wildlife Amendment Act (Aboriginal Ownership).
1998	Mutawintji National Park, comprising 70,000 hectares, handed back to its original owners on September 5, 1998. Name change took place at this time back to the original and preferred spelling.