For several thousand US Marines in Camp Mackay and Camp Russell, this reservoir was the main water supply.
Another source was a water main from the Paekākāriki supply dam in Smith’s Creek that entered the southern end of the camp. The Marines, leading a strenuous life in close quarters, needed a lot of water – for showers, for cooking, for drinking, for laundry and for toilets.
A 9 inch (23 cm.) water main fed this reservoir from an intake a few hundred metres away. Smaller pipes took water from the reservoir along the terrace to the west and led between ‘tent decks’ to laundries, latrines, showers, cookhouses and mess rooms. A large sewer carried the waste water away to a treatment plant in Camp Russell (Queen Elizabeth Park).
The reservoir has been closed down because it was contaminating the farm water supply.
The Department of Conservation says birds were defecating in the open reservoir and the wooden structure across the top was rotting and falling into the water. While it has now been fenced off and replaced by two new covered tanks – providing the farm water supply, it is still clearly visible to members of the public interested in seeing it.
Marinesnz.com is the website of The Kāpiti US Marines Trust and part of a major project to collect, preserve and promote World War II US Armed Forces history from 1942-1944 in the Kāpiti district, north of the capital city Wellington, New Zealand. While our focus is the history surrounding Camps Russell, MacKay and Paekākāriki’ we also have an interest in Marines camps in other parts of the Wellington region and in the social history and friendships between Kiwis and Americans during this brief but all-important encounter.
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Email: info@marinesnz.com