It involved Te Kooti, the Māori leader of a religion called Ringatū, and several of his followers who had escaped to mainland New Zealand from imprisonment on the Chatham Islands in July 1868.

[3][4] Te Kooti ambushed a party of Armed Constabulary near Lake Taupō in June and the government began to move troops to the area.

[6][7] Te Pōrere is a locality situated about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) to the west of Lake Rotoaira and southwest of the current site of the town of Tūrangi.

The bastions in theory offered defenders the ability to fire down onto the ditch but in practice were poorly angled and did not provide sufficient coverage to achieve this.

The main entrance/exit point, which coincided with a break in the ditch, was midway along the western wall which, due to its proximity to the bush, offered a line of escape for its occupants.

[16] Shortly afterwards, Ormond Wilson, the chairman of the Historic Places Trust, commenced efforts to restore Te Pōrere.

As part of the restoration work, vegetation was cut back, the breastworks of the redoubts reconstructed, and a pathway constructed between the site and a car park located off State Highway 47.

[17] The site was declared a National Historic Place in a ceremony held at Te Pōrere on 18 February 1961 by the Governor-General of New Zealand, Viscount Cobham.

[18][19] The fortifications at Te Pōrere were designated as a Category 1 Historic Place by Heritage New Zealand on 3 March 2006, with the list number 7652.

[2][6] Historian Ian McGibbon considers Te Pōrere to be the best preserved pā site in New Zealand, although not the best example since it is not representative of the traditional fortification of the type developed by Māori.