[6] The Wagiman, Jawoyn Bolmo, Matjba and Wurrkbarbar groups are the traditional owners of this area and, since 2019, they have held exclusive Native Title rights over this land.

[11] Of the name SW Herbert wrote:[12] "We setled down in our new camp at Pine Creek, since well known throughout Australia, first on account of its being a rich gold field, and years later as the inland terminus of our only railway on the north coast.

[15] The towns population fluctuated significantly in its early years and declined significantly in the interwar period; one of the few developments in this period was the establishment of the short lived Pine Creek Home between 1931 - 1933; it was briefly reopened in the early war years 1940 - 1941 as a place were children who were being transferred from government institutions to church missions.

[16][17][18] Immediately after the construction of the Overland Telegraph Line in 1872 gold was discovered at the Eleanour Reef at Pine Creek by Wentworth D'Arcy Uhr.

[23] Chinese miners, mostly from the Kwangtung Province, began arriving in Pine Creek in 1874 and 176 of these were indentured by the South Australian government.

[23] The boom restarted following the completion of the North Australia Railway to the area in 1889 when many of the Chinese laborers who had been employed on its construction, approximately 3,000 in total, settled in Pine Creek;[23] this included Ah Hong who remained there for a short time.

[19][23] There is evidence of a thriving Chinese community at Pine Creek until the late 1920s, during The Great Depression which was, soon after, followed by the evacuation of the entire civilian population during World War II and following the Bombing of Darwin and production ceased.

[37] The 43rd Engineer Regiment, of the US Army, with help from the 808th and, later, the Allied Works Council also constructed the nearby MacDonald Airfield (originally known as Burkholder Field).

[39] It was also during the war years that sealed, all weather sections of the Stuart Highway were constructed, providing transport alternatives to the railway.