The present town of Corfield was founded when the railway line to Winton was built, late in the 19th Century. The town had previously been a Cobb & Co. coach change, operating about one kilometre further east of the present site, at the time located on Manuka Station. When Corfield was a changing station, it was not named as Corfield, and is simply mentioned in records as Manuka. The town was part of the Winton to Hughenden mail route, which went via Oondooroo, Manuka, Stock’s Dam (or Sesbania) and Afton Downs, as early as 1881. It was run twice a week, and was contracted to be run over a day and a half from Hughenden to Winton, covering 161 miles (approximately 258 kilometres).

The town was relocated after the railway was built, and named Corfield, in honour of one of the early carriers in Winton. The first train from Hughenden to Winton arrived on May 23rd, 1899, linking Winton with Townsville via Hughenden.

The population of Corfield peaked at around thirty to forty people, which has since declined. The town of Corfield reached its peak in the days of the railway operation, when at least one train load of wool left Corfield weekly during shearing season, usually for Brisbane, and there were two trains a week, one for passengers, the other for freight. There were five railway houses, plus the station master’s house, a post office, two petrol depots, a hotel and a school and teacher’s house. The town also had a goods shed and railway building. The railway between Winton and Hughenden has since ceased operation during the late 1990s.

Corfield township experiences a population explosion once a year at the annual race meetings, when local and distant punters come to experience the real Corfield Cup, and a much smaller weekly explosion when there is an event on at the local Club.