Camp Mackay (Whareroa Farm)

Camp Mackay housed 4,650 men and was built on the flat plateau, south of the current entrance to Whareroa Farm. This camp was home to men from the 5th Marine Regiment of the 1st Marine Division and the 6th Marine Regiment of the 2nd Marine Division.

The camp included 25 concrete tent floors, which would have housed two, four and 8-man tents as other camps did. It also included a large number of Officers’ billets, an Officers’ Club, three recreational buildings, the Divisional Headquarters and accompanying accommodation, a canteen, a bulk store, a brig (jail), ablution blocks, laundries and showers.

The remnants from this camp include: concrete water supply supports, a concrete floor from the old recreation building, a reservoir intake, an old dump site, and marker boulders.

The land on which Camp Mackay was built was originally owned by the Wellington Hospital Board and the Imhoff sewage treatment plant was installed with an eye to its possible future use for servicing hospital buildings.