RNZAF Station Ohakea Construction Photos

[Dave Homewood]

Brendon Deere was given an album of photos taken during the building of RNZAF Station Ohakea in 1939,and he very kindly scanned them and sent themto meto share here on the forum. Such a terrific series of photos. Really historic.

[Dave Homewood]

[Dave Homewood]

[Dave Homewood]

[camtech]

A fascinating look at how Ohakea was put together.

[skyhawkdon]

Incredible photos. Back when we could build things that lasted and quickly, despite the lack of technology and equipment.

[Antonio]

Oh so true

[Dave Homewood]

No computers involved in the design too, all human brains and slide rules.

[tbf2504]

A liked the photo showing the railway line they built from the river to the station to carry aggregate, and the guy with the top hat on the drain digger. A massive undertaking without the advantage of today's machinery

[Antonio]

BUGGAR!

[davidd]

Remember that all the heavy machinery on view here was probably the very latest from America, and imported for the Public Works Department (PWD), so pretty much best in the World at the time. I have noticed that many people seem to believe that these pre-war and wartime projects for defence purposes were built entirely by the PWD, when it would be more correct to say that the PWD did all the designing, co-ordinating, and overall supervision of a large number of private contractors who probably were responsible for bulk of the actual construction work. One thing you could almost guarantee was that if the machine had "Caterpillar" stamped on it, that these were Government-owned, doubt that many private firms would have been able to afford them at the time. When the big Ohakea and Whenuapai aerodromes were being built, horses with drays, wheelbarrows and shovels were still widely used in civil construction work in New Zealand; this was probably 1938/39, and NZ was still greatly suffering from the after effects of the Great Depression. Also after these aerodromes were built, much of the heavy machinery was shipped to Singapore and Fiji where they commenced work on the new aerodromes at Nadi and along the coasts of the Malay peninsula for the same purpose, with those at the latter location never returning to New Zealand.

[snaphead]

A brilliant series of photos saw similar in RNZAF Musram some years ago.

[snaphead]

A brilliant series of photos saw similar in RNZAF Musram some years ago. How about some of the current updates??

[30sqnatc]

May 27, 2023 9:30:51 GMT 12 tbf2504 said:

A liked the photo showing the railway line they built from the river to the station to carry aggregate, and the guy with the top hat on the drain digger. A massive undertaking without the advantage of today's machinery

I think thats actually the Manawatu County Council Sanson Tramway that ran from Himatangi to the Rangitikei River where there was a ballast pit.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanson_Tramway

And from another source 'When Foxton locomotive depot closed and passenger services on the Foxton Branch were withdrawn in 1932, through running to Foxton from the tramway ceased. The line received a boost just before World War II when it was required to service contractors at the Ohakea RNZAF Base, and during the war petrol restrictions helped to generate traffic. How- ever, these restrictions ended with the coming of peace and post-war traffic on the line was too insignificant to justify its continued existence. It closed on 29 November 1945.'

[fwx]

The hangars were designed by Charles Turner, Chief Designing Engineer of the Public Works Department, built by McMillan Bros Limited and cost £76,750 each. At the time they were by far the largest structures of this type built in New Zealand and said to be the largest hangars in the Southern Hemisphere, each designed to house nine Wellington bombers.

To enclose the 220 x 190-foot area of clear hangar space, ten huge roof span arches of stressed concrete were created in-place, with footings 300 feet apart. The arches and reinforced concrete roof sections between the arches were poured progressively on top of a 240-ton forming structure that could be moved on rails. Concrete was hoisted from ground-level up to a massive overhead scaffolding structure and wheel-barrowed across to each pour, which was made symmetrically from both sides of the span, meeting in the middle. A pour could take between 24 and 30 hours.

During the pour for the first roof section a heavy thunderstorm washed some of the fresh concrete away. Boxing was improved and a weather watch became a critical part of the process.

The hangars were front opening with ten 25-foot high x 23-foot wide reinforced concrete sliding panel doors that were cast in place. Annexes for workshops, storerooms and offices were incorporated in the sides and rear of each building.
“The arched hangars are built for permanency, huge and solid, not intended to be bombproof, but designed to be blast and splinter-proof in walls, door panels (each one weighs 27 tons), and sweeping roof.”


The story is pretty interesting :

“Reinforced Concrete Hangars for Air Force Stations in New Zealand” by Chas. Wm. Turner, M.Eng., B.Sc. (Eng.), New Zealand Institution of Engineers Proceedings, 1948, Vol. XXXIV.

Turner's paper used to be available here (https://www.engineeringnz.org/programmes/heritage/heritage-records/ohakea-hangars-2-and-3/) but the link seems not to be working. I have a copy if anyone is interested, just email me at [e-mail].

[Dave Homewood]

May 27, 2023 12:28:24 GMT 12 davidd said:

I have noticed that many people seem to believe that these pre-war and wartime projects for defence purposes were built entirely by the PWD, when it would be more correct to say that the PWD did all the designing, co-ordinating, and overall supervision of a large number of private contractors who probably were responsible for bulk of the actual construction work.

Indeed, I discovered in 2010 while talking with my Great Uncle Ted "Bluey" Homewood that my grandfather, Jim "Jock" Homewood (who died in 1973 when I was two) was a concrete contractor with his own little outfit in the 1930s, and he worked on the build of Whenuapai in 1939-40. I assume he helped to build the hangars and buildings, and quite possibly the Bristol Block barracks that I was to live in 50 years later in 1990. He never worked for the PWD, but he was contracted by them, from what Uncle Bluey said. I do know that he also worked on part of the big concreting job of Great South Road, too, at some point. That was all concrete like the autobahns.

May 27, 2023 12:28:24 GMT 12 davidd said:

One thing you could almost guarantee was that if the machine had "Caterpillar" stamped on it, that these were Government-owned, doubt that many private firms would have been able to afford them at the time.

Arthur Baker of Cambridge imported some heavy earthmoving equipment including a crawler tractor and giant discs to level out his hilly farm at Whitehall, Cambridge, in 1936-38 time frame. He then started getting orders from other farmers to do the same and he developed it into a business, Baker Construction. This became a huge name in earthmoving, and the company is still operating from Cambridge, under a different name. Arthur became a Works Officer in the RNZAF in 1942, and I guess he probably took some of his gear and men with him. He was a pioneer in the field, predating the government interest in heavy earthmoving.

[oj]

Really enjoyable and even at that early stage I immediately recognised the corner of what became No. 2 Hangar and the Electrical Section Battery Room where I worked for a year or so.

I think Baker Construction did major work on the new Hong Kong airport, though I have no source to offer in that regard.

[Dave Homewood]

I have no idea about Chek Lap Kok Airport. Bit it is possible. 

Actually Arthur Baker's original company that he formed when he left the RNZAF in 1945 was called Earthmovers, Waikato, Ltd.

Jim Ross of Cambridge formed a new company, Baker Construction Ltd, in 1960. Arthur and Jim were also involved in the ownership of Cambridge Transport Ltd., I believe, and probably other businesses. Arthur Baker was managing director of both Earthmovers, Waikato, Ltd., and Baker Construction Ltd.

Earthmovers, Waikato, Ltd. did a lot of contract work building roads and was involved in building the current Rotorua airport. They also built a lot of Turangi village when the hydro scheme was being built there.

Baker Construction was a main contractor building a lot of the South Island dams in the 1960s and 70s.

Baker Construction continued long after Arthur died (1969) and Jim died (1981) in the hands of Jim's sons. They sold it and then bought it back, and changed the name to C and R Developments.

I am not sure if Earthmovers, Waikato, Ltd continued in any form after Arthur died, or if it was bought out by Bakers. I really do not know. I also don't know what Arthur called his business before the war, maybe it was not registered as a company then. I really need to get back to the Ross Brother's amazing museum sometime and chat with them about all this to fill the gaps in the history as I know it.

[Dave Homewood]

I wonder if there were any accidents or fatalities during the construction of the four big hangars? I have never come across any info on that. I'd not want to be up at that height when it was wet or windy (and this is Ohakea and Whenuapai we are talking about, so chances are it was wet and/or windy a fair bit during construction.)

Anther thing that interests me is the Lockheed Hudson that dived into the roof of the No. 1 Squadron Hangar (now No. 40 Squadron's hangar) during the war put a hole on the roof, and it was patch. I wonder if there are any photos or accounts of the repair. Was the scaffold needed to be brought back and erected?