Māori legends and oral history record the hills in this area being clad in rare New Zealand beech forest which reached down to the shoreline.

The major Māori pā in the area was at Waiwhetu and land access to the eastern bays was by a steep track which ran up the long sloping ridge named Ngaumatau ('bite of the fishhook')[5] by Ngāti Ira.

Te Atiawa chief Puakawa was killed in his garden at Ngaumatau shortly after the arrival of European settlers in the ship Tory in 1839.

[5] This was followed by Colonel William Wakefield and the New Zealand Company's choice of the harbour for their first settlement and the arrival of the first settlers in 1839, on board the ship Tory.

[7] Hugh Sinclair of Wainuiomata, owned much of the land around Point Howard, and in 1877 he laid out plans for a subdivision which included multiple access roads.

The Lowry Bay Estate Company was formed to subdivide the northern section which included current Point Howard.

[10] An expansion of industrial sites at Seaview on the northern approach to Point Howard in the 1920s led to major developments for the suburb.

[13] In February 1934, the largest oil tanker to visit New Zealand, Texas Company's Australia, berthed at Point Howard wharf with her load of two million gallons of petroleum.

[15] As this coincided with the depression years men on relief wages were employed to excavate a site at the top of Point Howard for a new reservoir to supply the Eastern Bays with water.