[3] James Cook and Joseph Banks rowed up the Waihou River on 20 November 1769 and disembarked near Hikutaia.

[4] In 1794, acting on Cook's description of the forest, Captain Dell and his crew of the ship Fancy camped in a place they called Graves End, which is now Hikutaia, and took 213 kahikatea trees with assistance from local Māori.

Four Europeans were living at Hikutaia in 1799, assisting the trade in timber and the sale of Māori labour.

[21] The Thames to Paeroa section of the line opened on Monday, 19 December 1898,[16] with Hikutaia as a flag station.

[24] As government gave support to roads and cut railway spending, decline started, tablet working ending in 1930, with only 3 mixed trains a day each way between Paeroa and Thames, the porter moved to Auckland, the tablet equipment to Mangapehi[23] and passenger trains withdrawn on 28 March 1951.

[22] The crossing loop was reduced to 37 wagons in 1958, the platform was removed in September 1959 and the privy and urinal in November 1959.

From 17 July 1966 only traffic in wagon loads was handled and the station building and goods shed were sold on 19 April 1967 and the 2 railway houses in 1969.

June 28, 1991, was the last day of commercial traffic on the Thames branch and the line officially closed on March 29, 1995.