A history of
Queen's Redoubt

Two peoples on a southern land

New Zealand's first settlers arrived around 800 years ago, bringing with them East Polynesian arts and ways of life. Over many centuries they learned the ways of a unique southern land — to become distinctively Māori.

From the late 18th century, Europeans began to arrive: British and French explorers, then sealers and whalers, traders for flax and provisions, timber-cutters seeking spars from the great northern forests, and missionaries.

In 1840 their presence was formalised by the Treaty of Waitangi, signed by the British Crown and Māori tribes. At first a conflict of interests was not always evident. But many Māori soon saw that newcomers arriving in such numbers would not long be content to live on the fringes of a Māori land.

In 1858 the Waikato chief Pōtatau Te Wherowhero was proclaimed King, heading a separate Māori state — an attempt to prevent the imposition of British government and law throughout the country. The Waikato tribes took on a vast responsibility for continued Māori independence, which a few years later resulted in the invasion of their lands by a large British army.

In September 1861 Sir George Grey returned to New Zealand for his second term as Governor. The Colonial Office in London hoped he might mediate between the New Zealand Government and Māori. Grey saw matters differently. He read the Waikato tribes and the King Movement as the heart of resistance to British law — and as the obstacle to Pākehā Auckland's expansion into the rich lands to the south.

After visiting the Waikato in December 1861, Grey asked General Cameron, commanding British troops in New Zealand, to set his men to work building a road from Drury to the Waikato River — a road that could carry, in Grey's words, "either defensive or aggressive operations against an enemy as circumstances may require."

On Christmas Eve 1861, Cameron ordered 2,409 troops, including military engineers, into four camps between Drury and Pōkeno. Work on the Great South Road began on 1 January 1862. The 65th, 70th, 40th, 12th and 14th Regiments were tasked with making various sections of the road. Cutting through thick bush country and over steep hills, the new road to Pōkeno and the Waikato River was completed at one o'clock on 18 June 1862.

On 12 April 1862, Cameron decided on the location of a military post for 450 men near the Ngāti Tamaoho village of Pokino. On 28 May he returned to fix the redoubt and encampment. On 9 June the site was occupied by 150 men of the 70th Regiment from a camp at Ramarama, and 140 of the 14th from Camp Pokino.

By 18 June there were more than 400 men at work on the fort. The redoubt would be 100 yards square, with a caponnière at two opposite angles for the defence of the ditch, and a commissariat store, hospital, and huts inside. Rank and file were housed by 28 September; officers three weeks later.

Trace, ditch, parapet, bastion

Earthwork redoubts have a long history in European warfare, and in colonial wars of the 19th century. The plan — or "trace" — was marked out on the ground, then Royal Engineers supervised the troops digging out a defensive ditch.

Standard New Zealand redoubts had ditches 6 ft deep and about 8 ft across. The spoil was thrown up on the inner side to a height of 8 ft, presenting an attacking force with a 14 ft obstacle from the bottom of the ditch. Behind the parapet was a raised tread on which defenders could stand to fire over the wall.

Projecting bastions at two or more corners allowed the garrison to fire into the ditch if attackers reached the walls. At Queen's Redoubt these took the form of loop-holed blockhouses — used where a long-term role was planned. There was usually just one entry to a redoubt; Queen's Redoubt was one of only two in New Zealand known to have more than one.