Prior to the arrival of Europeans the area was the home of the Kurnai and Bidawal First Nations people.

On 20 April, 1770 Point Hicks was named by Captain James Cook’s to honour his senior lieutenant, Zachary Hicks, who became the first European to site the east coast of Australia.

By the early 1840s cattle from Twofold Bay was being grazed in the area but it was too far from the home station and the local Bidawal Aborigines speared and ate the animals.

Around 1879 the Morgan family took up the Cann River station. 

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In the 1880s more settlers moved into the area.

The Cann River post office opened in 1890 on the property of the Morgan family and by 1900 a small settlement comprising a store, school, church and hall had developed 9 km from the present town with 163 people living in the district by 1921. Most residents farmed pigs, dairy and beef cattle.

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In 1928 a large, brick hotel was built on the town's present site and the Princes Highway was re-routed to pass beside it. That same year St John's Anglican Church was constructed.

A government school was built in 1937, by 1938 Cann River comprised a Post and Telegraph Office, police station, school, church, hotel, boarding house and garage.

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In 1965 a secondary school was established in the town.

The district was connected to the state electricity grid in 1970.

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By 1977 there were five sawmills in the district and timber was an important local industry.