The area was home to brickworks and farmland until the Northwestern Motorway was constructed in the 1950s, after which Te Atatū developed a low and medium-cost suburb.

[4] The peninsula is composed of Waitemata Sandstone, which formed on the ocean floor 20 million years ago, overlayed with alluvial soil from ancient waterways.

[4] The peninsula is bound on the west by the Te Wai-o-Pareira / Henderson Creek and to the east by the Whau River, both of which are drowned valleys.

[4] During the Last Glacial Period approximately 17,000 years ago, sea levels were significantly lower,[5] and the peninsula was a highland above the Waitematā river valley.

The modern peninsula formed approximately 6,500 years ago,[5] when sea levels rose and the Waitematā river valley drowned and became a harbour.

[4] Within this, the majority of the peninsula is a part of the Warm Lowlands Ecosystem, which was originally dominated by a forest of kauri, rimu, rātā, kahikatea and rewarewa trees.

The northern end of the peninsula, and the south-western area adjacent to Te Wai-o-Pareira / Henderson Creek has a Harbour Coastline Ecosystem, which was originally a diverse lowland forest, including trees such as pōhutukawa, pūriri, nīkau palms, mamangi and kōwhai.

[6] The saltmarsh on the eastern side of the peninsula is an ecologically significant area for native plant life and bird species, and links to the Motu Manawa (Pollen Island) Marine Reserve to the south-east.

[15] After the closure of the brickworks, the peninsula was primarily used as farmland, producing dairy, pigs, poultry and fruit from small orchards for the city of Auckland.

[16] During World War II, gun emplacements were installed on the eastern side of the peninsula, to protect the RNZAF Base Auckland at Hobsonville from attack.

In the early 1950s under the Public Works Act, the board acquired Motumānawa / Pollen Island, and 162 hectares of eastern Te Atatū.

There was wide-scale opposition to the plan, with over 1,000 people present at a meeting at Te Atatū Intermediate School in 1973, after which Prime Minister Norman Kirk announced that the project would be abandoned.

This scheme included conference centres and Kiwidome, a proposed stadium adjacent to Te Wai-o-Pareira / Henderson Creek.

[23] Due to financial difficulties, the park stopped operating in 1989,[24] and was formally shut down by the Waitakere City Council in 1991.

[4][29] The Auckland Council plans to revegetate the Harbourview-Orangihina Park with native plants, and to create a network of walking and cycling paths along the western shores of the Whau River.

The reserve includes anti-aircraft gun emplacement constructed in 1943 over fears of Japanese invasion during World War II.

[44] In 2024 the local board approved a lease of 2.5 hectares of the park for a controversial development involving houses, a Marae, and other buildings.

[47] In 1974, Swanson became a part of the Waitemata City, an area which covered most of West Auckland, excluding the boroughs of Henderson, Glen Eden and New Lynn.

The residents of Henderson-Massey elect a local board, and two councillors from the Waitākere ward to sit on the Auckland Council.