Morrinsville (Māori: Mōrena)[3] is a provincial town in the Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island.

Prior to European settlement of New Zealand, the hills around present-day Morrinsville were occupied by the Ngati Werewere Māori people of the Ngati Haua Iwi, and the site of the present-day town was on or near to an old Māori route between the upper Waihou-Piako basin and the Ngāruawāhia area.

J. Morgan travelled up the Piako River to near the future town site and crossed west to Horotiu, near Ngāruawāhia.

[5] First recorded contact with European settlers in the area occurred around 1850, with John Johnson trading with the Māori from 1852.

[6] The 1860s saw an influx of European settlers to the area between Te Aroha and Matamata, and on 13 December 1873 a settler from Auckland, Thomas Morrin,[7] purchased the Kuranui No.1 Block from the local Māori and founded the Lockerbie Estate, which Morrin named after the Scottish town from which his father had emigrated.

The fledgling village was to be the service centre for Morrin's Lockerbie Estate and he built a blacksmith's shop, manager's house, the Jolly Cripple Hotel and general store and donated land for a school.

Morrin hired Irish navvies from the gold fields to dig a network of ditches to drain the land, enabling it to be used for agriculture.

With construction progressing towards Paeroa and the line to Te Aroha opening on 1 March 1886, the town's population was listed as 633 people.

[9]: 244  With further expansion of the railway towards Thames and Tauranga, alongside extensive drainage of swamp land to the south and west of the town making available large areas for dairy farming.

[9]: 133–149, 243 Morrinsville was impacted by the Long Depression but weathered it better than other settlements due to its location on the railway line.

Morrinsville Railway Station was opened on 1 October 1884, to the east off Studholme Street, at the junction of the two lines.

Five workmen's cottages adjoin the station, and the Bank of New Zealand Estates Company has a large building connected with the siding for seed-cleaning and storage purposes.

[9]: 245 Transport out of Morrinsville was initially difficult with the only proper road leading to Mangateparu; however, it was quite treacherous and prone to flooding.

[37][38] In 1970 a 60 acres (24 ha) farm that bordered the Kuranui Reserve was purchased by the Piako County Council.