Safe Haven - the untold story of New Zealand's largest ever military camp, Featherston 1916-1919

Wairarapa Archive's military expert Neil Frances has launched his third volume of military themed books, Safe Haven.   This tells the fascinating story of the construction, running and eventual closing of the country's largest ever military training camp,  on the Wairarapa plains just to the north-east of Featherston.  Well illustrated, and packed with information this is a book for anyone interested in the nations role in World War One.

Available from all good booksellers, and from the Wairarapa Archive.

The Eels of ANZAC Bridge

The Wairarapa Archive has branched out into another area with the publication of its first picture book.  Ali Foster and Viv Walker, the successful author and illustrator of the book Elwyns Dream  have produced another gem, this time based on the migration of the eels who live in the Makakahi River at Kaiparoro, and the war experiences of a soldier from the district who lost his life in World War One.  It tells of how his daughter played in the ANZAC bridge, built to honour the war dead, and continued to keep an eye on the eels in the river.

A great story and a great launch at Pukaha.

Copies of the book are available at all good booksellers, and at the Wairarapa Archive.

2012 - A new world - perhaps

2012 promises to be an exciting year for us here at the Wairarapa Archive.
It seems we will be switching computer systems during the year, with our providers CIVICA using as as the beta testers for their new EXHIBIT programme. We have had some involvement with the development of the system and are looking forward to having as new and clean look to our database.

Our long promised revamp to our home pages should also be happening this year - keep an eye out for new designs and plenty of new features!

On the publishing front our we will be releasing the newest book from staff member Neil Frances, whose string of military themed histories continues with the definitive history of the Featherston Military Training Camp from World War One.

Our other author, Gareth Winter, has contributed a chapter to our upcoming Wairarapa Moana book, as well as the text for a largely pictorial book outlining the history of the Beetham family and their Brancepeth Station.

All in all, a busy 2012 lies ahead.

We have a new window display, 'Seeing Double', a small selection of some of Welch family stereographic photos, taken from the 1900s to the 1960s.

Stereoscopy is the technique of creating the illusion of depth in two-dimensional images, in effect creating “3d” images. One method of doing this involves stereographic cards, two slightly offset images of the same subject mounted together. When used with a stereoscope, the two images can be seen as a single three-dimensional image.

William Kemble Welch (often referred to as Kemble) was an avid stereographic photographer and a member of the Stereoscopic Society. Throughout his life he had been taking stereo photos of his travels, experiences and his attempts to perfect his craft. His family, wife Ruby, daughter Annie (Nan) and son Graham also featured frequently in his work. 

The last of our team

Quentin Donald

The Rugby World Cup has been and gone, and we have finally broken the 24 year curse!

Our team of Wairarapa All Blacks is also coming to an end as we pick the front row, the coach and selector.

Quentin Donald is our rake, the second of the Donald brothers to win the highest honours, playing against NSW in 1923 and then joining the 1924 “Invincibles” where he played in all the internationals, often propped by Bill Irvine.  Irvine, who played 31 matches for Wairarapa and 41 for New Zealand had one  son, Ian, who went on to also represent the country, while another son, Bob, became the best known of the family, as a sports broadcaster for 20 years from 1960.

The other prop is Keith Reid, a Carterton forward who played over 100 first class games, including five as an All Black.  After his playing days he became an administrator, serving as the sole selector the Wairarapa Union for many years.

We have chosen  Ted ‘Scobie’ McKenzie, All Black selector from 1924-1939 as the selector for this team and were very tempted to include his brother William ‘Offside Mac’ McKenzie, an All Black in 1893-1897, as one of the  loose forwards, and another brother, Bert McKenzie, who controlled 12 Ranfurly Shield games and a number of international,  as the referee.  Instead we have chosen international referee and referees’ administrator (and long time Masterton mayor) Bob Francis to blow full time on our team.

The coach’s role goes to Lane Penn, who was assistant All Black’s coach under Alex Wylie.

Dr Kate Hunter

The Wairarapa Archival Society was delighted to host a visit from Dr Kate Hunter, senior lecturer at Victoria University, who spoke of the importance of small archives in her academic work. Kate's research and writing has focused on aspects of rurality in both Australia and New Zealand, and sends many of her honours and masters students our way.

A good Kiwi Blake

As we near the business end of the Rugby World Cup, we also see the completion of our Wairarapa All Blacks team.

We chose Ian Harvey as out first lock, but the second locking position was more difficult to choose.  The first Wairarapa All Black was Hart Udy, junior, who technically did not play for Wairarapa as there was no Wairarapa Union in his time.  Playing for the Greytown club side which competed in the Wellington competition in the mid-1880s, he played in eight matches for the national team.  The New Zealand Rugby Annual of 1885 said he was a “powerful forward, always pretty adjacent to the ball.”

In the end we went for Alan ‘Kiwi’ Blake, although he usually played in the loose forwards.  He played 108 games for Wairarapa and was perhaps best known for exploits with the 2NZEF rugby team, better known as the ‘Kiwis’, who excited crowds in Europe and the United Kingdom with their open style of play.  ‘Kiwi’ Blake had 26 games for the New Zealand Maori team (despite not having a drop of Maori blood) and played for New Zealand against Australia.  He was also a Wairarapa selector in the late 1960s.