Soon after the beginning of World War I, New Zealand troops started work on building wooden huts here.
It was officially called the 4th New Zealand Infantry Brigade Reserve Camp, and trained reinforcements and casualties who were regaining fitness.
Soon after this date the camp suffered large casualties as a result of the Spanish influenza.
[1] At the end of the war, there were 4,600 New Zealand troops stationed at the camp and it became a repatriation centre.
[2] To occupy them, the New Zealand soldiers were put to work carving the shape of a large Kiwi in the chalk of the hill that overlooks the camp.