Upper Wairoa War Memorial Park, Tangiteroria

Upper Wairoa War Memorial Park, Tangiteroria

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In 1947 the people of Tangiteroria bought 8 ½ acres of land in Pukehuia Road to form the Upper Wairoa War Memorial Park. Football fields, bowling greens and tennis courts were established. The old Tangiteroria hall was moved to the site. A memorial flagpole was erected outside with brass plaques at its base that listed the six local men who had died in each of the two world wars. The Tangiteroria Garden Club planted a tree for each soldier.

By the early 1980s, the old hall had reached the end of its useful life. It was replaced by a new facility built largely by voluntary labour. Known as the Upper Wairoa Memorial Community Hall and Sports Complex, this was formally opened by Colonel T.F.L. Ward on 4 July 1987. This building was destroyed by fire, possibly arson, in January 2020. The  Upper Wairoa community's First and Second World War rolls of honour were lost in the fire (a single undated photograph of the latter survives in the archives of the Kauri Museum at Matakohe).

See: Tangiteroria School Centenary and District Reunion, 1886-1986 [Dargaville, 1986], [pp. 56-7]; ‘A Tangiteroria welcome’Kaipara Lifestyler, 11/7/2012; 'Fire destroys complex: rips heart out of Tangiteroria community', Radio New Zealand, 16 January 2020.

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