Waiouru Military Camp
| Waiouru Military Camp | ||
| Geographical location | ||
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| Coordinates | 39 ° 28 ′ S , 175 ° 41 ′ E | |
| Region ISO | NZ-MWT | |
| Country |
 New Zealand
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| region | Manawatu-Wanganui | |
| District | Ruapehu District | |
| Ward | Waimarino-Waiouru Ward | |
| Residents | 792 (2013) | |
| height | 824 m | |
| Post Code | 4826 | |
| Telephone code | +64 (0) 6 | |
| UN / LOCODE | NZ WAO | |
| Photography of the place | ||
 Soldier in training at the Waiouru Military Area |
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The Waiouru Military Camp is a military settlement and training camp of the New Zealand Defense Force in the Ruapehu District of the Manawatu-Wanganui region on the North Island of New Zealand .
geography
The camp is located around 1 km northeast of Waiouru on the southern foothills of the Rangipo Desert . Adjacent to the northeast is the Waiouru Military Area , a huge military training area that extends north to the Kaimanawa Mountains and whose dimensions to the east are not known.
history
The military camp was established in the 1930s to train forces from the Territorial Army . In 1939, one month after Great Britain declared war on the German Empire in World War II , a large part of the land leased from the Waiouru sheep breeding station was reclaimed by the Crown. A large training camp was established by December 1940 and 340 km² of land was acquired as a military training area.
Another 250 km² in the north and east were added to the practice area from 1949 onwards. The New Zealand State Highway 1 was expanded and a power line was built up the Moawhango Valley. The camp served as a training camp for conscripts and soldiers of the New Zealand Special Air Service . At its peak in the 1970s, Waiouru had around 6,000 residents with the camp, including 600 children. In the 1980s some units of the army were relocated to the Linton Military Camp in Linton and by 1990 the population of the place had fallen to about 3,000. The population continues to decline. In the 1996 census, the place still had 2,478 inhabitants, in 2001 only 1,647 and in 2006 1,380.
In April 2016 was from the Chief of Army Major General Peter Kelly that declared in a newspaper interview Waiouru Military Camp is dissolved as a place for basic training of recruits and by Burnham in Christchurch in the Burnham Military Camp is relocated. The reason given was that the soldiers need to be close to a large city with all its advantages, which the remote place Waiouru cannot offer. The Waiouru Military Camp is to be reduced in size, but will remain as a camp for training with weapons.
population
In the 2013 census, Waiouru had 741 inhabitants, 46.3% less than in the 2006 census, although there is no precise information about the numbers of soldiers and their families in the camp that is attached to the place.
Waiouru Airfield
The Royal New Zealand Air Force uses the fortified Waiouru Airfield (ICAO code NZRU) west of the army camp for training landings of Hercules transport planes and Jameson Field within the camp for helicopters.
HMNZS Irirangi
The radio listening station HMNZS Irirangi , 2 km north of Waiouru , was used by the Royal New Zealand Navy as Waiouru W / T station from the Second World War , from 1951 as HMNZS Irirangi , but no longer used for eavesdropping purposes today.
literature
- FG Croom : The History of the Waiouru Military Camp . 1941 (English).
- SD Waters : The Royal New Zealand Navy . Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–45 . War History Branch, Department of Internal Affairs , Wellington 1956, Chapter 23, Organization of Naval Staff , p. 446 f . (English, online [accessed October 24, 2017]).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b 2013 Census QuickStats about a place : Waiouru . Statistics New Zealand , accessed October 24, 2017 .
- ^ The Royal New Zealand Navy . Land Information New Zealand , accessed October 24, 2017 .
- ↑ Map 27 . In: New Zealand Touring Atlas . 5th edition. Hema Maps , Brisbane 2015, ISBN 978-1-877302-92-3 , North Island Regional Maps (English).
- ^ Ruapehu District . (XLS 23 kB) Statistics New Zealand , 2006, archived from the original on November 25, 2007 ; accessed on October 24, 2017 (English, original website no longer available).
- ↑ Sam Kilmister : End of an era for Waiouru Military Camp as it drops basic training . In: New Zealand Herald Online . NZME. Publishing , April 7, 2016, accessed October 23, 2017 .