The Pindjarup dialect group of the Nyungar people are the earliest known inhabitants of the Peel Region. Nyungar people with familial ties to this portion of Western Australia share a common culture, language and history that dates back 38,000 years and incorporated a 'care for country' ethos in their custodial relationship with the land and the use of its resources.

European settlement of the Peel Region followed the establishment of the Swan River Colony in 1829. Settlement centred on Pinjarra, where the fertile soils and grassy plains offered better opportunities for cropping and cattle grazing, following initial difficulties. There was significant resistance from the Aboriginal inhabitants of the area. Agriculture and forestry became the dominant regional economic activities with the former expanding with the construction of an extensive drainage network from the 1920s onwards.

In 1872, the Jarrahdale timber mill was established together with the Rockingham-Jarrahdale railway line to transport timber to the coast for overseas export. Inland settlements such as Mundijong, Waroona, Dwellingup and Etmilyn accompanied the construction of the Perth-Picton Railway which serviced the timber industry.

Boddington was established in 1912 to service an area of broad acre mixed cereal crop and sheep farming, while in 1913 the opening of a major brickworks accompanied the establishment of Byford as a workers' housing estate. In 1932, Nestles established a dairy processing facility in Waroona providing further impetus for an expansion of dairying as a major economic activity in the region.

Since the 1970s the growth of resource processing provided further impetus to the Region's population expansion while from the mid 1980s onwards, population growth has been driven by a lifestyle-led demographic 'shift to the coast' centred on the City of Mandurah.