The name refers to the solid rock landing place used by early colonial residents of Auckland who travelled along Lucas Creek.

The name schnapper is a variation of snapper, which people believed was the correct spelling in the mid-19th century, and refers to the good fishing found in the area.

[11][12] The North Shore was settled by Tāmaki Māori, including people descended from the Tainui migratory canoe and ancestors of figures such as Taikehu and Peretū.

[16] The poor clay soils of the area were not suitable for Māori traditional gardening techniques,[17] but the creek was a good source for eels, crayfish and flounder.

[18] An ara (traditional path) connected Lucas Creek and the Okura River to the north, which led to Long Bay and the upper Hauraki Gulf.

This was used as a portage, where waka could be hauled overland between the two bodies of water,[15] Numerous archaeological sites are found on the banks of the Lucas Creek, because of its importance as a transportation node.

[15][19] The warrior Maki migrated from the Kāwhia Harbour to his ancestral home in the Auckland Region, likely sometime in the 17th century.

His younger son Maraeariki settled the North Shore and Hibiscus Coast, who based himself at the head of the Ōrewa River.

[23][24] By the first half of the 19th century, the mouth of the Lucas Creek to the southwest of Albany was one of the most densely settled areas of the North Shore by Tāmaki Māori peoples.

Itinerant gum diggers would scour the area for kauri resin to sell at stores, including one located at Schnapper Rock, which was established in the late 1840s.

After the opening of the Auckland Harbour Bridge in 1959, larger farms began to be subdivided into smaller farmlets.

[34][35] The name was name chosen by property developers for the area, and already had strong associations with the North Shore Memorial Park and crematorium.

[38] On 1 August 1974, the Waitemata County was dissolved,[39] and Schnapper Rock became a rural area incorporated into Takapuna City.