It is located in the upper East Coast Bays of the city's North Shore, and is governed by Auckland Council.

[13] The land at Torbay is primarily made up of Waitemata Group sandstone, which formed during the Miocene approximately 16 to 22 million years ago on the seafloor.

[5] Prior to human settlement, inland Torbay was primarily a northern broadleaf podocarp forest, dominated by tōtara, mataī, miro, kauri and kahikatea trees.

[16][17] The North Shore was settled by Tāmaki Māori, including people descended from the Tainui migratory canoe and ancestors of figures such as Taikehu and Peretū.

[18] During his arrival in New Zealand, Hoturoa, captain of the Tainui, guided the waka to the Waiake Lagoon (Deep Creek), which was a safe anchorage for the canoe.

[20] While the poor soils of Torbay hindered dense settlement,[21] traditional resources in the area included fish, shellfish and marine birds.

[23] The traditional name for the Torbay area is Waiake, meaning "Eternal Spring",[5][24] referring to a pool upstream of Deep Creek known as a good location to catch kahawai.

[5] The warrior Maki migrated from the Kāwhia Harbour to his ancestral home in the Auckland Region, likely sometime in the 17th century.

His younger son Maraeariki settled the North Shore and Hibiscus Coast, who based himself at the head of the Ōrewa River.

[29][30] By the 18th century, the Marutūāhu iwi Ngāti Paoa had expanded their influence to include the islands of the Hauraki Gulf and the North Shore.

[32] The earliest contact with Europeans began in the late 18th century, which caused many Tāmaki Māori to die of rewharewha, respiratory diseases.

[19][5] In 1841, the Crown purchased the Mahurangi and Omaha blocks; an area that spanned from Takapuna to Te Ārai.

[36][37] The first European land owner in Torbay was John Logan Campbell, who purchased Allotment 189 (Ōkura to Browns Bay) in 1864, believing that there was coal in the area.

[43] After he died, his land was sold to Captain Charles Cholmondeley-Smith,[43] who grew tobacco, until the market crashed and he established the Glenvar Wine Company.

[5] The first wharf was constructed circa 1880 by the Cholmondeley-Smith family, and ferries were the major means of transport well into the 1920s.

[47] Due to habitual problems with mail being sent to other areas of New Zealand called Oneroa, such as Oneroa on Waiheke Island or places in the South Island called Deep Creek, the post office's name was changed to Torbay in 1933.

[41] During World War II, pillboxes were constructed in Torbay, at Gilberd Place and at the corner of Beach Road and Long Bay Drive.

[15] Torbay is close to the Long Bay Regional Park, which attracts over a million visitors each year.