Wagga Wagga District Hospital opened on 1 July 1856 and was situated in a slab cottage on the sandhill in Kincaid Street. In 1859, land was granted to the Hospital Committee to erect a new building on the corner of Tarcutta and Johnston Streets. By 1900, the hospital had outgrown this land and looked to rebuild on the edge of the township. In 1910 the hospital opened on its new site at the corner of Edward Street and Albury Road (later, Docker Street). In 1938 the name of the hospital changed to the Wagga Wagga Base Hospital.
In 2016 it was briefly named the Wagga Wagga Rural Referral Hospital before once again becoming the Wagga Wagga Base Hospital in February 2018.