The Fingal area was surveyed in 1824 by Roderic O'Connor and John Helder Wedge, and is believed to have been named after Fingal's Cave in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland rather than Fingal in Ireland.

Fingal was once the site of a convict Probation Station which housed up to 400 convicts at any one time. Due to the difficulty of keeping these inmates restricted, they would often wander around the countryside threatening pioneer settlers. The Probation Station was later to become the Hiring Station of 1847.

The town experienced a boom when Van Diemen's Land's first payable gold was discovered in nearby Mangana

Shortly after the survey, land was granted in the district and two substantial holdings were taken up by William Talbot.

'Malahide' - located 2 km north of the town it is a gracious two storey stone Georgian house which was built in 1828 and James Grant built 'Tullochgoram' - a property is located 5 km out of Fingal on the road to Avoca.

In the 1850s Fingal had a population of 877 people and was chiefly a farming area. Coal was first discovered around this time, and a railway was established in 1886 to open up the coalfields around the town.

In the town's main street is the Holder Brothers Store dates from 1859 and nearby is the old Tasmania Hotel, constructed, in part, from the stones which were originally used to build the Prison barracks in the 1840s. It became a hotel in the 1850s and is now the local Tourist Centre.

By 1900 Fingal and district was supporting 5,500 local inhabitants, and the numbers were ever increasing. The town had a branch of the Bank of Australasia, four different churches, a public school, and three private educational establishments.

A Masonic club and Oddfellows Lodges were also present in Fingal at this time.

Fingal Turf Club was established late in the last century, and was operational until 1912.

The water supply for the residents of the town was derived from the South Esk River, and a coach service linked Fingal with Mangana and Mathinna.