On 11 December 1940 the Navy received Cabinet approval for the occupation of the old quarantine station on Motuihe Island in the Hauraki Gulf on 14 January 1941 the station was commissioned as HMS TAMAKI.
The wartime establishment at Motuihe Island was in need of major refurbishment by the 1960s, but when the costs were reviewed, the Government directed that TAMAKI be relocated to an under-utilised Army facility at Narrow Neck, Devonport.
At the turn of the new century, as part of a major reform of the Naval Command structure, HMNZS TAMAKI ceased to exist and PHILOMEL assumed responsibility for the whole of the naval base and facilities in November 2000.