A History of Queen’s Redoubt and the Invasion of the Waikato by Ian Barton and Neville Ritchie
$50.00
ISBN 978-0-9951268-8-6
Jacketed hardback | 332pp
240mm x 170mm | 100 illustrations
On 12 July 1863, British and colonial troops under the command of Lt. Gen. Duncan Cameron crossed Mangatāwhiri stream, Waikato Māori’s northern border, instigating the Waikato War.
In order to do so they had amassed a vast infrastructure that included building the Great South Road (the ‘Road to War’), establishing a military supply train capable of providing for the needs of 6,000 soldiers, erecting a telegraph service between Auckland and Pōkeno, forming a navy of armoured gunboats on the Waikato River, and constructing the second largest military fort built by the British Army in New Zealand: The Queen’s Redoubt.
At the height of the invasion, some 14,000 British and colonial troops contested the Waikato against Māori forces which never exceeded 3000. The Waikato was occupied from July 1863 to April 1864, followed by massive land confiscations.
This book tells the story of the Redoubt, and the buildup of military power along the Waikato border, which led directly to the most significant campaign of the New Zealand Wars, the invasion of the Waikato.
Queen’s Redoubt was the launching pad for the invasion of Waikato in 1863. Ian Barton and Neville Ritchie have produced a valuable account of its place in this defining conflict in New Zealand’s history. — Vincent O’Malley
Dr Neville Ritchie qualified as an archaeologist at the University of Otago in 1968. He retired in 2018 after 32 years with the Department of Conservation, Hamilton as Regional Archaeologist. His major research projects have been on the Chinese miners in Central Otago, the archaeology of Scott’s and Shackleton’s huts in Antarctica, and the New Zealand Wars.
Ian Barton is a retired forestry consultant, he has written or edited several books about the North Waikato region including Auckland’s South Eastern Bulwark: A History of the Hunua Ranges and The Shuker Story: From Shropshire to Otaua, 1913–2013. He was a founding member of the Queen’s Redoubt Trust.
