Tauherenikau Military Camp
Location: State Highway Two, between Featherston and Greytown
Tauherenikau Camp served from August 1915 until 1923 in various guises - mostly seen as a stopgap until the Featherston Military Camp was ready for occupation. Here's a good map to see the layout of the military camp in relation to current roads.
Originally set up among the manuka trees just noth of the Tauherenikau River bridge, the first occupants were mounted riflemen but infantry quickly followed.
The men here always lived in tents and at times there were up to 4000 men in camp. Supplies had to carted from Featherston.
The first reinforcement marches over the Rimutaka Range departed from Tauherenikau.
Occupation of this camp was not permanent once Featherston opened, trainees often spent a short time here before entering Featherston.
In the winter of 1917 a four-camp system operated to separate men from different districts isolated for a period to avoid contagion.
A YMCA, a medical facilty and a few other buildings were constructed with a small isolation camp across the road.
When the war ended most of the buildings were removed quickly. In 1919 the Repatriation Department set up a training farm to help returned soldiers, suffering from tuberculosis or chest wounds, to learn light farming - market gardening, bee-keeping, poulty. The training farm closed in 1923.
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All this information has been supplied by Neil Frances at the Wairarapa Archives. If you'd like to know anything further please contact david@wairarapanz.com.