Before 1917, the main occupations of the population were hunting, wood distillation, and livestock production.

To start with, a wood distillation plant for manufacturing charcoal and blast furnace for smelting iron were set up in the factory.

Following the decision of the government to construct the blast furnace and wood distillation plant (to produce charcoal) in 1943 at Wundowie, plans were made to develop the townsite.

Originally named Richards's Siding, it was built for the use of the nearby Britannia Creek Wood Distillation Plant.

In the later-19th and early-20th centuries the Forest was a complex industrial region with deep coal mines, iron mines, iron and tinplate works, foundries, quarries and stone-dressing works, wood distillation works producing chemicals, a network of railways, and numerous tramroads.