Port Stephens Fisheries Institute was established in the early 1970’s as an aquaculture research facility. It was donated to the NSW Government by a mining company called VAM Limited and was originally called the Brackish Water Fish Culture Research Station. This was later changed to Port Stephens Research Centre to reflect the broader range of fisheries research being conducted here. With the transfer of a number of administrative and policy duties to Port Stephens in 1999, the site was again renamed to its present name - the Port Stephens Fisheries Centre. 

In 2008, it was renamed Port Stephens Fisheries Institute.