Waiouru Military Camp is a camp of the New Zealand Army in the central North Island of New Zealand near Waiouru.
All New Zealand Army soldiers complete their initial basic training, the All Arms Recruit Course (AARC), at Waiouru Military Camp. The camp is also the site of the army marae. The marae is the home of Ngati Tumatauenga, literally 'the tribe of the God of War', the Māori phrase for the New Zealand Army.
Military camp
The New Zealand government chose the sheep station at Waiouru as the location of a North Island training area for its Territorial Forces in the 1930s. The sheep station had large areas of inexpensive open land, and existing road and rail access to the North Island coastline. The artillery was the first branch of the New Zealand Army to use Waiouru. In 1937, Waiouru farmhand Cedric Arthur wrote: The Military (artillery) Camp is here again for its annual big shoot, so Waiouru is exceedingly busy with huge lorries, tractors, guns and horses, not to mention soldiers galore.... It has been rumoured around here that the Minister of Defence has bought 15 miles of Waiouru to make a permanent Camp here. (Arthur 1984)
A month after the declaration of World War II in 1939, most of the leasehold Waiouru run was taken back by the Crown.
Wartime camp
At the beginning of the winter of 1940, 800 construction workers from the Ministry of Works built a training camp with capacity for 7,000 Territorial soldiers. Within six weeks 25,000 tons of building materials had arrived at Waiouru Railway Station. 450,000 tonnes of earth was shifted to make a flat area for the camp. At the same time, hundreds of soldiers camped under canvas in the snow and completed extensive field training.
By Christmas 1940, there were 230 buildings erected, served by of streets, and each of water mains, power lines and sewers. By mid-1941, seven regimental camps housed 7,000 soldiers. There was a bakery, a hospital, two film theatres and five "institutes", each with a concert hall, library, writing room and tearooms. However, there were no bars; soldiers had to go to Taihape to buy a beer. An Armoured Fighting Vehicle School and a Command and Staff School at Waiouru were established in August 1941. By the end of the war, £1.2 million (NZ$2.4 million) had been spent on developing the camp, and of land had been acquired for training.
Postwar
More land was required for the camp by 1949. Plans were made to upgrade the Desert Road track through the artillery range to a major State Highway and build a high-voltage power line to transfer power up the Moawhango valley. The Army Schools at Trentham were to be transferred to Waiouru, compulsory military training was about to commence and, as defence responsibilities shifted to South-East Asia, the Army needed forests for jungle warfare training. These considerations resulted in another of land to the north and east of the camp being acquired by the New Zealand Government. In 1955, the 1st NZSAS Squadron started jungle training in Paradise Valley, part of the newly acquired area.
Waiouru's busiest years
Compulsory military training was carried out at Waiouru from 1950 to 1958, and balloted national service from 1962 to 1972. In 1978, the National Army Museum opened at Waiouru, and in 1985 the Officer Cadet School of New Zealand. These were busiest years at Waiouru. 100 recreational clubs were active in the 1970s and 80s: the Ski Club alone had 300 members. At the time, Waiouru had a population of 6,000 people, including 600 children.
Declining use
In the 1980s some training was discontinued, and some army units were transferred to Linton. By 1990 Waiouru's permanent population had fallen to about 3,000. However, several hundred additional service personnel participated in training at Waiouru at any given time. In 1991, nearly three thousand soldiers were trained in Waiouru on 275 courses.
With the reorganisation of armoured force personnel in 2005, and their departure from Army Training Group, Waiouru's population fell to about 2,000, but it was still often-used training area due to its central location and of varied landforms. The 1,400 beds in the barracks were frequently full, with more personnel using satellite camps or sleeping in the field.
Waiouru continues to be the base for TAD (The Army Depot) and is the integral training base for the New Zealand Army. Most of the service people currently posted to Waiouru support training courses including the All Arms Recruit Course (basic training).