GENERAL HEADQUARTERS BUILDING – QUICK FACTS

1. It is probably the oldest existing military administration building remaining in New Zealand, located on a site representing more than 100 years of military history associated with Mount Cook.

2. It is recognised as a Category 2 Historic Place.

3. You will find it on the corner of Taranaki and Buckle Streets.

4. It was built in 1912, replacing the original wooden barracks built for the New Zealand Permanent Artillery about 1882.

5. It features bricks made by convicts from the Mount Cook gaol (distinctive markings known as prison arrows can still be seen today).

6. It initially housed the Director of Stores offices, but served as Defence Headquarters for 15 years.

7. It was home base for the General Officer Commanding for the Army from 1929 to 1938 and is sometimes referred to as the GOC building.

8. Today the General Headquarters Building is owned by the New Zealand Defence Force.

Richard’s team has carried out two month-long excavations during the project’s lifetime, one in June 2012 followed by another in October last year. He and David Rudd, Heritage New Zealand archaeologist overseeing the project, agree it’s been a complex, largescale operation that has revealed something from pretty much every key phase in Mount Cook’s military history. The original wall foundations of the drill hall built in the 1880s and the hall’s underground rifle range have been excavated. So too have a signal mast from the 1870s, brick drains and a gun pit. Several timber postholes, possibly from Mount Cook’s first military encampment in the 1840s, have been identified, along with walls from the 1907 garrison hall and bricks made by prisoners from local jails.

For Richard, the highlight has been the range of subterranean findings. “I don’t think anyone thought we’d find such a depth of archaeology here. Sure, we found some interesting things on the surface: the buttons and bottles and so on. But in the end we found artefacts more than four metres under the surface, dating back to the 1840s and 1860s.”

The Armstrong Gun And The Russian Scare

Did Mount Cook have an Armstrong gun?

Yes, it did. In 2012 archaeologists excavating on Buckle Street found remnants of a gun carriage set into a circular brick pedestal. The gun carriage is thought to have supported what’s known as an eight-inch, disappearing Armstrong gun.

Why is the gun significant?

A number of these guns were brought to New Zealand in the 1880s during a period known as the Russian scare. At the time they were the latest in military technology although they soon became obsolete. New Zealand placed them at key points on the coast to protect itself from naval attack.

What did it look like?

These guns were huge – the largest weighed more than 13 tonnes. They could fire a 95-kilogram explosive shell about 6.5 kilometres.

Where’s the gun now?

We don’t know exactly. The gun itself, last sighted in the 1930s, has not been seen at all during the memorial park excavation work. It is believed to be buried in front of the National War Memorial.

Find Out More

Want to know more about the memorial park, what’s happening on Anzac Day next year and where you can see what the archaeologists have dug up? Go online: n www.nzta.govt.nz/memorial-park n www.mch.govt.nz/nz-identity-heritage/nationalwar-memorial n www.ww100.govt.nz

His team’s big find is thought to be Wellington’s earliest stone building, unearthed near the Taranaki Street end of Buckle Street. “It’s a double-cell stone building with halfmetre-thick walls. After talking to David Rudd, we agreed it was probably a powder room for housing military explosives that was added to and enlarged over time,” says Richard.

“Overall, this has been an incredibly significant heritage project for Wellington. We’ve seen, literally, layer upon layer of life revealed. This experience is common in places like the United Kingdom but it’s rare in a young country like New Zealand. It’s very unusual to have a 19th-century ground surface surviving underground and it’s also uncommon to excavate military sites in New Zealand with such an extensive history.”