Young is marketed as the Cherry Capital Of Australia and every year hosts the National Cherry Festival.
James White was the first European settler in the district and established Burrangong Station in 1826 with a squatting claim of 100 square miles. Gold was found in the district in 1860. Until that time the area was called Lambing Flat, a reference to the grazing of sheep that was the main industry until mining. The town was gazetted in 1861. The goldfields produced 470,000 ounces of gold sent by escort from the fields. Up to 20,000 miners worked the fields including about 2,000 Chinese miners.
Lambing Flat Post Office opened on 1 March 1861 and was renamed Young in 1863.