[3] The suburb was officially founded in 1834, when George Brown transferred the Ship Inn from Wollongong to Mullet Creek Farm, in an area now named in his honour as Brownsville.

[4] By 1903 the Commissioner for Railways declared that Dapto was the most valuable station on the Illawarra line, its traffic being double that of Wollongong.

The area of Dapto west of the rail line, formerly pastoral land, has undergone significant expansion over the past 20 years.

This area has become the fastest growing part of the greater Wollongong region and consists of a sprawling, medium-density suburbia known as Horsley, now officially a suburb in its own right.

The South Coast line electric rail service terminated in Dapto prior to electrification being extended to Kiama in 2001.

Dapto Mall is fourth-largest shopping centre in the Illawarra region, after competitors Wollongong Central, Stockland Shellharbour and Warrawong Plaza.

The original Dapto Public School opened in August 1875, and was operated out of a local church hall.

In a bizarre alternate universe, Dapto is the main setting for the adult animated television series Koala Man that premiered on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in Australia on 9 January 2023.

The series takes place in an alternate universe where the sinking of the Titanic was averted, indirectly resulting in the United States of America being destroyed (except Hollywood becoming an island), Australia becoming the world’s superpower, and Nicole Kidman becoming its Queen.

With the establishment of the railway network in 1887, the Dapto area experienced a period of continued urban expansion over the ensuing decades.

St John's Church is the public worship centre of Dapto's Catholic population, and can be found in Jeramatta Street.