[4] A military installation, Pokino Camp, was set up in the area in December 1861 after Governor George Edward Grey called for a road to be completed from Drury to the Waikato River, Great South Road.

[4] The Pokeno Railway Station on the Waikato section of the North Island Main Trunk line was opened in 1875, but was closed in 1973 to passengers and in 1980 to goods.

Work on the proposed Paeroa–Pokeno Line commenced in 1938 and whilst approximately 13 km of earthworks were completed at each end, the proposal was halted due to World War 2 and was not resumed following the war and was abandoned.

[6] After the sale it was reported "Thirty one lots in the village of Havelock, which has recently been laid out on the banks of the Waikato river, were in much request, the lots averaged from half an acre to an acre and 38 perches, and the whole fetched £339.

[10] In 2019 permission was sought to revive the subdivision in TaTa Valley, with 1,025 houses, a conference hotel, farm park and a ferry to Mercer.

[11] At the end of Bluff Road, where the original Great South Road reached the Waikato River, a 15 m (49 ft) x 14 m (46 ft) stockade was built in 1862 on an older pā, which probably had five terraces below the stockade.

It secured the Te Ia landing place, which was used for supplies throughout the subsequent war.

[13] Pōkeno was originally governed by the Pokeno Road District Board before amalgamating with Franklin County in 1916.

Before the 2023 census, Pōkeno Rural had a larger boundary, covering 88.63 km2 (34.22 sq mi).