History of Featherston
Called Paeotumokai by the early Maori, the area became know as Burlings, named after one of the early European settlers, Henry Burling.  In 1846 he opened an accommodation house, which for several years provided a resting place for weary travellers, and tired bullocks.

Featherston was surveyed in 1856, by Captain William Mein Smith of the NZ Company, and this new town was named after Dr Isaac Featherston, Superintendent of Wellington province.  All the original streets bear the names of members of the Provincial Council, who were prominent early settlers.  In January 1857, the first auction of sections was held in Wellington, and gradually people arrived to start a new life.

The town grew very slowly until the arrival of the railway in 1878.  This was a major feat because of the steep Rimutaka Ranges which had to be crossed.  The famous fell engines, using horizontal wheels gripping a raised centre rail, were needed on the Wairarapa side of the range, and a small village was constructed at Cross Creek to service the railway.  Over 100 people lived there but with no shops provided, Featherston businesses benefited.  The price of land doubled overnight, as Wellington was now only a few hours away.

The town grew steadily, and by 1896 the population reached 769.  There was a school, town hall, library, courthouse, police station, three hotels, several churches, three lodges, a town band, operatic society and many sports clubs.  All of South Wairarapa looked upon Featherston as its headquarters.  The Town Board, established in 1882, had control of the town.  In 1916, during WWI, a huge military camp was established just north of the town.  It accommodated approximately 8000 men, and had its own hospital, post office, shops and railway siding.  Once trained, the men marched over the hill to Trentham camp, being fed at the summit by the ladies of the Featherston Patriotic Committee.

In October 1916 the magnificent ANZAC Hall was opened, as a recreation centre for the troops from the camp.  It was also used as a military hospital during the influenza epidemic which broke out in 1918.  Over 200 soldiers died in Featherston as a result of the epidemic, and are buried in Featherston Cemetery.

In 1917 Featherston was proclaimed a borough and the population increased over the years.  During WWII the army camp again came into use in 1942, as a Japanese prisoner of war camp. In February 1943 a riot took place which resulted in many prisoners, and one New Zealander being killed.

After the war, due to the extremely slow and labour intensive operation of the Fell engines on the Rimutaka Incline, plans were finally put in place to build the Rimutaka rail tunnel.  In 1951 the military camp became the home for the men building the tunnel, benefiting Featherston financially again.

The tunnel was officially opened at Speedy's Crossing on the 3rd of November 1955 to great excitement from those present.  As a gesture of thanks the Minister of Railways presented the last of the Fell Engines "H 199", to the town, to commemorate the people who had worked to keep the incline route operating for the past 77 years.

In the 1960's the town's population mushroomed with many new streets and houses built.  Most of the new residents travelled by train each day to work in the Hutt Valley or Wellington.

One of the most memorable events in Featherston's history was the twinning of the town with Messines in Belgium in 1975.  For many of the New Zealand servicemen in WWI, their last memory of New Zealand was their time spent at the town's Military Camp, before they left to serve in Belgium.  Many of them were never to return.  The twinning of the two towns keeps alive their memory and the ultimate price they paid for freedom.

Another of Featherston's achievements was the restoration of the Fell Engine H 199, a project started in 1980, with the formation of a society to house and preserve the engine.  This was achieved with total voluntary labour and skill and in April 1984 the Fell Locomotive Museum was opened.

Following the economic down turn in the late 1980's, the "Wake Up Featherston" campaign was launched in 1991.  As a result of this, interested residents became actively involved in reviewing the town's history, facilities and identity.  Groups formed included the main Street Beautification Society, Dorset Square Beautification and the heritage Museum.

After years of planning, the Miniature Fell Society opened their Mini Fell railway in 2004 giving rides around Clifford Square.

Featherston's population is now 3419 and growing by the day.  Property and land values have risen to heights never expected, and more and more people are realizing the Featherston is a go-ahead little community with a bright future.

An abundance of clear flat pastureland, its proximity to the New Zealand Company's principal settlement, Wellington, and the settled nature of local tribal politics was of great attraction to early pastoralists.

In 1844 the first settler to bring stock into the district, drove a flock of 350 Merino from the Hutt Valley around the rugged coastline and into the Wairarapa Valley.  At one point on the journey, each animal had to be man handled through the treacherous Mukamuka Rocks.  Fellow pioneering farmers, soon followed and within a year a dozen sheep and cattle farms had been established in the area.

Along with the pioneer squatters came a stream of small farmers and labourers whose efforts contributed to the growth of the region.  They faced huge challenges, breaking in the land, draining swamps, sudden floods, scorching droughts and isolation.

While a track for driving cattle over the Rimutakas was opened up in 1848, it was 1856 before the first wheeled traffic was able to make this journey.  This ensured the future of the farming industry as wool and other products could be sent out to markets and necessary supplies obtained.  This was further enhanced in 1878 when the railway reached the Wairarapa.

Along with sheep and cattle farms, dairy farming was significant in the development of Featherston County.  By the early 1880's dairy factories were springing up throughout the region.

One of the biggest inhibitors to farmers' progress in the County was flooding.  The levels of Lakes Wairarapa and Onoke varied according to the natural opening and closing of the sand bar at Lake Ferry.  While farmers wanted to be able to open the lake mouth when necessary to drain flooded land, local Maori saw this as a threat to their fishing rights.  It was not until 1896 when the crown purchased Lake Wairarapa that the matter was finally resolved.

During the 1960's more permanent flood protection began with the introduction of the Lower Valley Development Scheme.  This ambitious undertaking took 20 years to complete.  The major components were the diversion of the Ruamahanga River and the installation of flood-gates, which controlled the flow of water in and out of Lake Wairarapa, known as the Barrage.

Today, the region continues to have a reputation for quality in the sheep, beef and dairy industries.  It has also become very diversified in land use.  Deer, Ostriches, a variety of crops, horticulture, viticulture, forestry, organic farming and tourism are just some of today's enterprises.  As it did from the beginning, the land of Featherston County has much to offer.

Archaeological sites at Palliser Bay may date back as early as 1000AD.  Within the first 250 years of settlement, six contemporary communities totaling about 300 people had settled along the east coast to the Palliser Bay.  At some time in the eleventh or twelfth century, they worked together to build stone walls in the Palliser Bay area, to hold back the rich soil and to shelter their crops of kumara from the southerly winds.  They fished in the lakes, trapped eels in the creeks, and gathered shellfish along the shore and berries inland.  The winters drove them further north, so that there was in all probability a regular migration of the small, closely related population.  Yet by 1600, this occupation seems to have almost wholly disappeared.  Two powerful earthquakes in the fifteenth century that may have dried out lagoons and caused slips, changing the topography, may have contributed to this reduction in population.  There is evidence that while the practice of using fire to remove vegetation for gardening may have had an effect, the two earthquakes accelerated erosion and the exposure of gardens to the strong winds of the coast.  There was movement inland.  According to the archaeologists Foss Leach "There seemed to have been two rather different types of settlement pattern in the Wairarapa: an early one based on permanent settlement in Palliser Bay and a later configuration with permanent habitation in the alluvial Ruamahanga plain..." (As quoted in McIntyre, 2002, page 21)

The southern Wairarapa did not remain empty for long. Members of the Rangitane tribe, probably more skilled and better organized, had begun to settle around Lake Onoke until the middle of the seventeenth century when the Ngati Kahungunu, moving down from Hawkes Bay, came upon the valley and lakes. The history of the migration is obscure, but it did not lead to a clash with the Rangitane, who accepted the migrants, ceding land and moving back or going to the South Island. Until the early nineteenth century, the Ngati Kahungunu lived peacefully in the valley, for the southern Wairarapa does not breed anger or warlike moods. Then came Te Rauparaha, with his Ngati Toa warriors, armed with muskets and bent on conquest. As a consequence of these conflicts of the 1820's the Ngati Kahungunu moved back towards the Mahia Peninsula. But the Wairarapa did not appeal to the warriors. Gradually some of the Ngati Kahungunu came back, and finding few Ngati Toa settlements, they became bolder, establishing camouflaged camps, and in time more permanent settlements. Distinctly outlined on the eastern skyline, visible from many parts of southern Wairarapa, outline are what is known as the "three canoes". According to Maori legend these are the three inverted canoes of Kupe (Nga Waka a Kupe).

The Maori in Featherston (Paeotumokai)

The first Maori inhabitants of the Featherston area are said to have been Rangitane, descendants of the Aotea canoe who came to the valley by way of Wanganui and Wellington, following the Hutt Valley and finally crossing the Rimutakas. It was from the summit of the Rimutakas, as they looked down on the shimmering lake, that Rangitane named the valley Wairarapa. Later, in exchange for six canoes, the area was ceded to the Ngati Kahungunu, the Hawkes Bay tribe who also occupied the upper valley. There was a Pa near Featherston much frequented by Maori as a gateway to tracks over the Rimutakas. Ngati Awa, who were later defeated by the Ngati Kahungunu, occupied it.

Lake Wairarapa

The lake was a valuable fishing ground for Maori, particularly for eels, and each February and March, when the eels were migrating, Maori came from as far as Hawkes Bay and Wellington to exercise traditional fishing rights.  Eels, migrating to the ocean to breed, were harvested by the Maori from the sand spit between Lake Onoke and the sea when the lake outlet was blocked.

Lake Wairarapa is joined to Lake Onoke by a channel known as the narrows.  Southerly storms periodically sweep up sand and shingle to close the outlet of Lake Onoke.

Maori land Treaties, Sale of Lake Wairarapa 1896. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, N.Z.  Reference number: F7886-1/2

The lake bed owned by the Ngati Kahungunu was sold to the Government in 1896.

Southern Wairarapa presents a fascinating array of geographical features.  Meandering watercourses follow the contours of the land, merging into rivers, most of which end up in Lake Wairarapa.  Shallow and wide, the lake itself flows into a smaller lake, Onoke, and thence into Palliser Bay and Cook Strait.

To the south, the bush-clad Rimutaka Range stands in a stern but protective line, hiding steep gullies and valleys, the delight of trampers.  Towards Cook Strait, cliffs overhang narrow stretches of rock and stone where seals folic or bask in sheltered spots.  Across to the north and east, rolling pastures turn into more steeply folded land, the home of vast lonely stations.