Featherston Military Camp, on a "windswept grassy plain" 3 kilometres north of Featherston, New Zealand, was built after the announcement of National Registration of all military-aged men to supplement Trentham Military Camp on the other side of the Rimutaka hill. The National Registration actually took place in October and November 1915, but the bill empowering conscription by the government did not pass until 1 August 1916. [1]
The camp was built in haste in the last quarter of 1915 more than 12 months after the first world war or Great War began. It was then intended to hold 4,500 men. A branch railway line from Featherston, in fact the start of the intended Martinborough branch railway, was a mile and a half long. First, Second etc. streets ran the length of the site and First Avenue, Second Avenue etc. ran crosswise. The first loads of materials arrived by rail in the first week of September 1915. Stabling was provide for 500 horses.
A larger camp than Trentham Camp the accommodation was also built to a better standard with large windows and all buildings clear of the ground. In the centre of each hutment there was a concrete-built space with a stove and wire netting for drying clothes and gear overnight. The four dining halls were set in the middle of the camp with the cookhouses at the centre. Ablution stands were set nearby. An immense gong made of a railway rail hung from a post.
The large hospital was completed in one week shortly before occupation. Officers' quarters were scattered throughout the camp in small hutments. Two producer gas generators supplied all the electricity for lighting including street lighting. There was a Post Office which opened 29 November 1915, a bakehouse, a milk-house and butchers shop. Buildings were provided for social institutes of the Church of England, Roman Catholic Church and the Salvation Army. Billiard rooms and a shooting gallery were provided. [2] The Troops moved across from temporary quarters at Tauherenikau Camp in January 1916.
17 December 1915 - 15 March 1920
During World War I over 30,000 New Zealand soldiers marched between military camps at Trentham, Upper Hutt and Featherston via the Rimutaka Hill Road, in a three-day trek of 27 miles (43.5 km), There were 23 marches of 500 to 1800 men between September 1915 and April 1918, at the end of their training as reinforcements for the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. [5]
Buildings demolished by a special contractor produced 50,000 feet of totara, matai, kauri, rimu and hardwood timber auctioned in August 1922. [6]
Dalgety & Co were instructed by General Headquarters, Military Forces, Wellington to sell by public auction on Friday 26 November 1926 the following temporary wooden structures with Malthoid roofing:
Upper Hutt is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand and one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington metropolitan area.
The Rimutaka Incline was a 3-mile-long (4.8 km), 3 ft 6 in gauge railway line on an average grade of 1-in-15 using the Fell system between Summit and Cross Creek stations on the Wairarapa side of the original Wairarapa Line in the Wairarapa district of New Zealand. The term "Rimutaka Incline" is sometimes used incorrectly to refer to other parts or all of the closed and deviated section of the Wairarapa Line between Upper Hutt and Speedy's Crossing, near Featherston. The incline formation is now part of the Remutaka Rail Trail.
Featherston is a town in the South Wairarapa District, in the Wellington Region of New Zealand's North Island. It is at the eastern foothills of Remutaka Range close to the northern shore of Lake Wairarapa, 63 km (39 mi) north-east of central Wellington and 37 km (23 mi) south-west of Masterton.
The Remutaka Range is the southernmost range of a mountain chain in the lower North Island of New Zealand. The chain continues north into the Tararua, then Ruahine Ranges, running parallel with the east coast between Wellington and East Cape.
The Remutaka Tunnel is a railway tunnel through New Zealand's Remutaka Range, between Maymorn, near Upper Hutt, and Featherston, on the Wairarapa Line.
Trentham Military Camp is a New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) facility located in Trentham, Upper Hutt, near Wellington. Originally a New Zealand Army installation, it is now run by Defence and accommodates all three services. It also hosts Joint NZDF facilities including:
The Wairarapa Line is a secondary railway line in the south-east of the North Island of New Zealand. The line runs for 172 kilometres (107 mi), connects the capital city Wellington with the Palmerston North - Gisborne Line at Woodville, via Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt and Masterton.
Featherston prisoner of war camp was a camp for captured Japanese soldiers during World War II at Featherston, New Zealand, notorious for a 1943 incident in which 48 Japanese and one New Zealander were killed. The camp had been established during World War I as a military training camp and had also been used as an internment camp from 1918 to 1920, when 14 German internees remained there.
The Hutt Valley Line is the electrified train service operated by Transdev Wellington on behalf of Metlink on the section of the Wairarapa Line railway between Wellington and Upper Hutt, New Zealand.
Maymorn railway station is a twin platform, rural request stop railway station serving the small settlement of Maymorn on the Maymorn Plateau, east of Upper Hutt, in New Zealand’s North Island. It is served by the Wairarapa Connection, and sees five services each way Monday to Thursday, six on Friday and two on Saturday and Sunday.
The Rimutaka Incline Railway Heritage Trust is a non-profit, charitable trust in New Zealand that was established in 2003 with the objective of reinstating an operating heritage railway over the Remutaka Ranges using the original route of the Wairarapa Line between Maymorn and Featherston, including the world-famous Rimutaka Incline.
Upper Hutt railway station is a suburban railway station serving central Upper Hutt, New Zealand. The station is on the Wairarapa Line, 32.4 km (20.1 mi) north of Wellington, and is served by Transdev Wellington on behalf of the Greater Wellington Regional Council. The station is the northern terminus for the electrified Hutt Valley Line to and from Wellington. The diesel-hauled Wairarapa Connection stops at Upper Hutt on its route between Wellington and Masterton.
Kaitoke railway station was a single-platform rural railway station on the Wairarapa Line between Upper Hutt and Featherston in the Wellington region of New Zealand's North Island. Initially it was the railhead of the Wairarapa Line, at a point where the railway met the main road between Upper Hutt and the Wairarapa. Later it was a point at which locomotives were changed, steam engines were watered, trains could cross, and passengers could make use of the refreshment room.
Pigeon Bush railway station was a single platform, rural railway station in an area of the South Wairarapa district known as Pigeon Bush, about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) south-west of Featherston, in New Zealand's North Island. The station was between Featherston and Cross Creek stations on the Wairarapa Line. The station was bypassed when the Rimutaka Tunnel was opened.
Cross Creek railway station was the base of operations for the Rimutaka Incline, a Fell railway over the Remutaka Ranges, and part of the original Wairarapa Line between Upper Hutt and Featherston in the Wellington region of New Zealand's North Island. The station was between Pigeon Bush and Summit stations on the Wairarapa Line. The station was bypassed when the Rimutaka Tunnel was opened.
The Remutaka Rail Trail is a walking and cycling track in the North Island of New Zealand. It runs between Maymorn and Cross Creek, and follows 22 kilometres (14 mi) of the original route of the Wairarapa Line over the Remutaka Range between the Mangaroa Valley and the Wairarapa, including the world-famous Rimutaka Incline. Parts of the trail are also used by vehicles both from the regional council and from forestry companies with tree plantations in the area; members of the public have limited vehicular access from the Kaitoke end to a car park, go-kart track and gun range. Access is also granted by permission to horse riders. Touring coaches have been used upon occasion to convey tourists and other visitors to various parts of the route.
The Martinborough Branch was a proposed railway line that would have connected the south Wairarapa town of Martinborough to the Wairarapa Line in New Zealand’s North Island. It was to have been used by passengers and by goods traffic for a productive agricultural area that was not well served with reliable transport links. Construction started, but was quickly suspended and never resumed.
Fernside railway station was a flag station that served the small rural community of Fernside, north-east of Featherston in New Zealand’s North Island. It was located on the Wairarapa Line near the southern bank of the Tauherenikau River. The station opened to traffic in 1880 and closed nearly a century later in 1975.
Lambton originally Wellington railway station in Featherston Street, Wellington, New Zealand was the southern passenger terminus for the Hutt Line and the Wairarapa Line from 1885 to 1936 and for lines further north until December 1908. Wellington's third railway station it had been preceded by station buildings temporarily at Pipitea Point and a site further south on Featherston Street beside Wellington's rail freight depot and its Railway Wharf.
Fernside is a generous and luxurious five-bedroom white-weatherboard slate-roofed American Colonial Revival style house with an L-shape plan. It covers approximately 9,000 square feet or less than 1,000 square metres. There are three further bedrooms in the staff wing of the main house. Set by the Tauherenikau River on the plain below the junction of the Tararua and Rimutaka ranges Fernside was built in 1924 to replace a house destroyed by fire.