The land which later became Utopia cattle station was first leased in 1928, but Aboriginal culture remained strong in this region. Many Aboriginal people worked on Utopia and other nearby stations, with mean employed as stockmen and women as domestic servants. The name is said to have originated with German settlers, brothers Trot and Sonny Kunoth, who acquired the pastoral lease in the 1930s, but others have suggested that it could be a corruption of "Uturupa", meaning "big sandhill", referring to an area northwest of Utopia.