[citation needed] Naenae occupies a basin and the lower slopes of the Eastern Hutt Hills in the upper reaches of the Waiwhetū Stream catchment area.

The stream is around 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) in length and passes through the eastern suburbs of Fairfield, Waterloo, and Waiwhetū, and the industrial areas of Seaview and Gracefield before entering the estuary of the Hutt River Te Awa Kairangi as it reaches Wellington Harbour.

[6]: 13 From the early days of European settlement, land in the area around Naenae and Taitā had been used for market gardens, and had supplied vegetables for the Wellington region.

[7] As Lower Hutt expanded after the end of World War II in 1945, the Labour Party government under Peter Fraser selected Naenae as an ideal site to become a "designer community", a model suburb of sorts, where a suburban state-housing estate would complement a substantial shopping centre.

Due to the increasing urbanization of New Zealand, demand for housing outstripped the need for such centres, leaving the scheme only partially realised .

[8] Ernst Plischke, an Austrian architect,[9] designed plans for the new community centre between 1942 and 1943.

Naenae's post-modern Post Office building,[12] (officially opened in 1966, closed as a postal centre in 2016) pays homage to the Art Deco era Main Post Office in Lower Hutt town centre.

A re-zoning of Naenae made it partly industrial in the 1960s, but it remained principally a residential area.

Originally open-air, a roof over the pool was completed in 1987, making it usable all year round.

[17] In 2021, the Hutt City Council approved a budget of $68m for replacing the pool as part of their 10-year plan.

Other projects include refurbishing the library, building a new community centre, and redeveloping Walter Mildenhall park.