Use of the island as an animal quarantine facility is recorded as early as 1864, when an advertisement in the Wellington Independent recorded that a man named James Sellars had been permitted to use it as a quarantine ground for his sheep. In 1889 Matiu / Somes Island was declared as the first animal quarantine station in New Zealand. In 1892 the government established a Department of Agriculture to protect New Zealand's farming industry, and in 1893 passed the Stock Act. The Stock Act 1893 gave the Department of Agriculture power to quarantine all live animals arriving in the country, so it built permanent animal quarantine facilities on Matiu / Somes Island (in 1893) and at other locations for this purpose. In 1916, internees on the island built stables for the quarantine station.
