It is located on the North Shore, at the southern end of the Devonport Peninsula that runs southeast from near Lake Pupuke in Takapuna, forming the northern side of the Waitematā Harbour.

East of Devonport lies North Head, the northern promontory guarding the mouth of the harbour.

It is surrounded by Ngataringa Bay to the northwest, the Waitematā Harbour mouth to the south, and the Rangitoto Channel of the Hauraki Gulf to the east.

Another scoria cone, the 20 metres (66 ft) high Duders Hill, believed to be a section of Takarunga / Mount Victoria, was quarried in the early 20th century.

[15] The earliest evidence for Māori settlement dates from the mid-14th century (roughly the same time as the believed landing of the Tainui migration canoe, which is commemorated by a stone memorial on the foreshore).

[18][19] Jules Dumont d'Urville, a French explorer, is thought to have gone ashore in the area in 1827, possibly as the first European.

[20] For the first half century or so of its existence Devonport was geographically isolated from the rest of the North Shore, and was sometimes called "the island" by the local inhabitants.

[23] Only a thin strip of land beside the beach at Narrow Neck connected Devonport to Belmont and the rest of the North Shore peninsula.

In the late 19th century the mangrove swamp that stretched from Narrow Neck to Ngataringa Bay was filled in to form a racecourse, now a golf course.

William Hobson, then the Governor of New Zealand, considered the sandspit-protected area a better choice for a naval installation than the shallower waters on the southern side of the Waitematā Harbour.

[16] While some facilities have expanded and shifted in location over time, the area is still the primary base for the Royal New Zealand Navy.

The suburb also had one of the oldest New Zealand shipyards, now part of the Devonport Yacht Club area.

[24]In July 2007, Devonport was given permission to be excluded from a list of local Auckland growth node centres.

These were open sailing cutters operated by local seamen running passengers to the foot of Queen Street, Auckland's main road.

[23] Both passenger and vehicle ferries operated on the Devonport run until the opening of the Auckland Harbour Bridge in 1959.

The last of the old-style double-ended ferries, the diesel-engined Kestrel (built in 1905), was retired from the commuter run in 1988 and was then operated for cruises and sightseeing.

A crossing between the Auckland CBD and Devonport takes about 12 minutes, usually on the 'Seabus Kea', a newer double-ended ferry.

[23] The Devonport Wharf / Ferry Terminal received a variety of maintenance and repairs during 2011 in advance of the Rugby World Cup.

In 2015 a $24 million redevelopment project to upgrade parts of Devonport including the wharf began.

[50]The 1929 wharf underwent significant repair in the 2010s[51] and is now home to the sculpture Flight Support for Albatross by Greer Twiss.

The club, founded in 1887, currently play in the NRFL Division 1, a league in the third tier of New Zealand Football.