Although he spent only six years in this country, the adventurous soldier Gustavus Ferdinand von Tempsky was one of 19th-century New Zealand's most colourful characters.
In the period between the first European landings and the First World War, New Zealand was transformed from an exclusively Māori world into one in which Pākehā dominated numerically, politically, socially and economically.
The last battle of the Waikato War began when the spearhead of a 1200-strong British force charged an apparently weak Māori position at Ōrākau, south-east of Te Awamutu.
Near the Mana Cruising Club in Ngatitoa Domain are the remains of the Paremata barracks, a turreted two-storey stone structure built on Governor Grey’s instructions in 1846.
From 1866 George Whitmore became substantively involved in the New Zealand wars, leading the colonial forces in no fewer than seven distinct campaigns against an incursive Hauhau force, Te Kooti and Titokowaru’s forces.
This memorial commemorates Ōtāhuhu settler and Franklin MHR Colonel Marmaduke George Nixon, who commanded the Colonial Defence Force Cavalry during the Waikato War and died from a wound received at the battle of Rangiaowhia in 1864.
