Memory boxes
Heritage consultant Ann McEwan heads north this week into relatively recent history.
Returning to the theme of employmentrelated housing, after the recent article about police houses, military personnel are also traditionally supplied with accommodation. At Hopuhopu, a row of houses that were built for army officers in the mid-1920s contribute to a significant heritage area that is yet another example of the Waikato’s connection to war.
In 1922, the Government issued gazette notices advising the taking of land at Hopuhopu for the purposes of establishing an army camp. This land had been held by the Anglican Church and a plan surveyed for the Railways Department in 1921 shows the future camp as the roughly triangular area bounded by the North Island Main Trunk Line, Old Taupiri Road and the Waikato River. ‘‘The great military training camp’’ to be established at Hopuhopu was often referred to as the camping ground [ Auckland Star, April 12, 1924, p. 8].
By April 1925, the land had already been used as a camp for trainees but it was still ‘‘in the rough’’ and plans were being drawn up to convert it into ‘‘a thoroughly equipped permanent military depot, to be officially known as the Ngaruawahia Mobilisation Base’’. It was also to be ‘‘the chief military magazine for the Dominion, and probably the greatest ordnance depot’’ [ Auckland Star, April 8, 1925, p. 5]. Six concrete bungalows for officers were then under construction, including the one shown here.
By December 1925, the gorse and blackberry had been cleared and men were erecting concrete and wooden buildings in what was ‘‘undoubtedly the most extensive military scheme ever undertaken by the Defence Department’’ [ Auckland Star, December 12, 1925, p. 10].
Officers’ housing, Old Taupiri Road, Hopuhopu. Two large mess rooms were under way and a cookhouse was soon to be built as an intake of 1200 men was expected in late January 1926. In addition to the first six houses, a seven-room house and 10 ‘‘accommodation cubicles’’ for single staff were later erected. By 1953, there was an additional pair of houses to the west of the original six.
In 1929, the Public Works Department handed over the camp to the Defence Department as most of the construction work, which included roads and a shelter belt, had been completed. Up to 80 workmen at a time had been employed on the project.
After World War II, more housing was built at Hopuhopu when Ashwell Crescent, named for the Rev Benjamin Ashwell, was formed. These houses took the form of contemporary state housing. Like the original officer bungalows, this housing was most likely for military use, as was the case at Wigram Air Force base, where state houses were home to the non-commissioned officers and officers enjoyed larger and more ‘‘stylish’’ homes.
Hopuhopu military camp closed in 1989 and it later was included in the Waikato Raupatu Settlement of 1995. Many of the camp’s buildings, including the officers’ houses and their single-car garages, remain. This old proverb explains the essential connection between the health and welfare of people and the land that produces their food. It also explains the massive grief that followed the loss of productive ancestral lands following the land wars of the 1860s.