Waimiha developed after the railway opened in 1901, which was followed by sawmillers and farmers.[3] Crown land in the area was prepared for settlement in the 1910s.[4] By the 1920s there were general stores, boarding houses, stables, a post office, butchery and cinema.[3]
In the late 1920s, under a government policy introduced by Āpirana Ngata, some Māori land owners received funds to convert their land into farmland. By the 1930s, 150 hectares (370 acres) of Māori land at Waimihia had been converted. Some of this land was later sold off or consolidated into larger farms.[5][6]
The Waimiha farm scheme was one of the Māori land blocks in the country to be successfully converted to farmland. Local Farmers' Union president Ngaronui Jones, who oversaw the conversion, also developed a farm on his own ancestral land.[7]
Endean’s mill,[8] New Zealand’s only surviving native timber sawmill, operated in the area between 1927 and 1996.[9] The complete remnants of the mill are no longer usable.[10] However, it remains on display as an open air museum,[11] and has featured in photography exhibitions.[12] Twenty-eight other abandoned sawmill sites have also been identified in the valley.[1] Milling peaked in the 1940s.[3]
A 3-roomed school and teacher's house was built in 1912.[18] Waimiha School closed in 2005, after projected roll numbers dropped below the numbers required to teach literacy and numeracy.[19]