The town was established on the Yorke Peninsula, the traditional lands of the Narungga, an Aboriginal Australian people, who had lived there for thousands of years.

[8] In October 1884 the Adelaide Observer noted: Maitland in situated about twenty-three miles from Moonta, on Yorke's Peninsula, and is about equidistant between the two Gulfs.

The township is only about nine years old, and has made steady progress, and bids fair to be the next largest town to Moonta on the Peninsula.

[5] Maitland is within a short driving distance of coastal towns on either side, with Port Victoria to the west and Ardrossan to the east, each within 25 km.

[10] Maitland has a hot-summer mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csa), with very warm, dry summers and mild, wetter winters.