New war memorial planned for Culverden

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from Northern Outlook

By David Hill, Local Democracy Reporter

The Culverden community is hoping to have a new war memorial in place for the town’s Anzac Day service next year.

Fundraising is under way and a memorial design has been approved with the support of the Hurunui District Council, Culverden Community Committee chairperson David Croft said.

The new design is based on a corten steel memorial at Leyland in England, with the shape of a soldier cut out and standing 9 metres high.

The Culverden version will be 6 metres high, with a poppy and the words 'Lest We Forget' on the front. A memorial on the other side would light up at night.

It will be placed in the Rutherford Reserve, next to Amuri Area School.

"It is going to be very unique, there won’t be anything quite like it in New Zealand," Croft said.

The project was expected to cost $150,000.

The Hurunui District Council’s Amuri Community Committee, also chaired by Croft, has approved the use of $56,000 in funds held in trust from the sale of the town’s Drill Hall in the 1980s.

More than $20,000 of community support has also been secured.

The Drill Hall was built by the late Duncan Rutherford in 1902 to train mounted rifleman and was gifted to the community. The Amuri mounted rifles had to buy their own uniforms, so Rutherford paid for those who could not afford it, Croft said.

Anzac Day services alternated between Waiau, Rotherham and Culverden. Culverden services were previously held in the Amuri Area School grounds, next to a tree planted in memory of a former pupil who was killed in World War I. But the tree blew over during a storm and had to be removed.

Culverden last hosted the Anzac Day service in 2021, with the community gathering at the Culverden Volunteer Fire Brigade rooms, before crossing the busy Mountainview Rd to a set of memorial gates.

"It was just not the right place for the ceremony because it is such a busy road," Croft said. "And we had the fire alarm go off in the middle of the service."

Culverden is due to host the Anzac Day service again next year. Croft hoped the foundations would be laid before Christmas.

The Culverden Community Committee needed to raise another $70,00 and has approached the Royal New Zealand RSA and the Lotteries Commission, with support from the council.

A leaflet drop in the community is also planned.

"What we plan on building is reasonably simple, but I think it will be really poignant," Mr Croft said.

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