The need for a Naval Museum grew with the increasing number of donations to the Navy by families of ex-navalmen during the early 1970s. In 1974 the Commodore Auckland, J.F. McKenzie, directed the Commanding Officer of HMNZS PHILOMEL to make a surplus room available for use as a Museum and the institution was born. The Museum was opened to naval personnel for 1 hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays and by arrangement for groups visiting the Naval Base.
The Museum's policy was to display items of naval interest with the aim of creating and maintaining a permanent record of the history and development of the RNZN. Advice was sought from the Auckland War Memorial Museum with respect to basic conservation and display techniques.
By 1981 the Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral K.M. Saull, believed there should be a proper museum for the Navy. A modest building on the edge of the Naval Base was chosen.
The Museum moved to Spring Street and was officially opened by Rear Admiral K.M. Saull on the 5th May 1982.
Almost immediately after the re-opening more room was needed. Public contributions, coupled with some fundraising enabled a modest extension to be built, which was opened in December 1989.
In May 1988 the Trust Board of the Royal New Zealand Navy Museum was established and the role of the Museum was amended to: "To be an educational and recreational facility that presents to the RNZN and the public in general, the naval influence on the history of New Zealand."
In May 2010, 28 years after it opened, the Navy Museum at Spring Street closed the doors to the public for the final time. For the next five months, exhibition designers, installers and Navy Museum staff prepared for Open Day at Torpedo Bay, 9th October 2010.
The New Navy Museum at Torpedo Bay.