The Trust began in 1989 when Gavin, Samuel, and Philip (current Papatūānuku residents), were attending a life skills course at the IHC in Auckland. At the end of the course, they wanted the opportunity to put the life skills they had been taught into practice in an alternative rural environment.In 1990, Lynne Gibson, a course tutor, and Kathy and Phillip Gibbs, gained a 100% Housing Corporation loan on a Greenhithe property for the Papatūānuku Independency Trust.  In 1992, the desire of the Residents to have more rural based work encouraged Lynne, Kathy and Phillip to form a new Trust, the Matea Trust and to purchase a 10 acre farm at Albany. 

In 1993, after a South Island holiday, the property in Greenhithe, was sold and the 25.3647ha (63.4 acres), farm in Boons Valley was bought and the three Residents came to Picton with Lynne Gibson and Aileen Hurst, continuing the Papatūānuku Independency Trust. A Board of Trustees was formed in 1993 to govern the operation of the Trust.  In 2014 20.2ha of the property was sold to make the Trust operation financially viable by removing the remaining mortgage. This left 5.16ha for the Trust.  Lynne and Aileen left the Trust in 2015 and a new Manager was appointed to upgrade the administration of the Trust and thereby retain the Ministry of Health funding which was in jeopardy at that time. The management has improved exponentially since then and Papatūānuku is now regarded as a respected and trusted operation.