Driving along Ruakura Road between home in Eureka and work in the City of Hamiton, NZ. The Ruakura Research Centre has been changing from the 1900s. The name ‘Ruakura’ means “rua” – hole/pit and “kura” – red because in the early years before 1550, the cavity in the area that was used to burn iron oxide. Today it is becoming a new intergenerational development project creating a thriving business and lifestyle hub with logistics and port facilities. It is called the Ruakura Variation and owned around 822ha back in 2016, then they (Ruakura Variation appeal) will rezone to 400ha in 2017. Not much happening except the new expressway motorway – NZTA Waikato Expressway will be completed in 2021. This expressway covering from Bombay Hills in the north down to Cambridge in the south and it is the longest – 102km with four lanes.
The place has a special memory of my early childhood with my grandparents during the school holidays. My grandfather worked at the Ruakura Research and the significant properties of the farms. His name was Alan Masters, and everyone at Ruakura Research Centre including farms called him, ‘Shorty”. Shorty was on the left while his old mate – Barry Hoskins was on the right at one of the largest farms – No. 2, which this farm was called.
Copyrights: AgResearch – Shorty and Barry.
So many names of the families worked there at the Ruakura Research Centre, I remember but there were too many names to mention. The most names I can remember were the Jury, Clayton, Gatenby, Umber, Lawler, Kimble? and Irwins.
One of the Watkinson families worked at the farms previous years before the Ruakaura AgResearch Station established in the early 1900s. It was John Watkinson and his wife, Rachel Watkinson nee Hall. They had got two daughters – Sarah and Ann, but Sarah died unexpectedly at the age of 38 years old. My late grandmother – Hilda was raised by John and Rachel because Hilda’s natural parents died suddenly. Hilda’s nicknamed as ‘Biddy’. I remember Ann over many years when Mama (Hilda) took me to see Ann and Tyrrel Brown and their only son – Trevor. Currently, Trevor and I kept regular touch every Christmas. I came across old photos from Hilda and my late father – Ray was only 1 year old and 1 month.
Let go back to John and Rachel Watkinson, they were living in Walton, in 1911 and it is a place at the junction of Walton Road and Morrinsville-Walton Road. This township is not far from our home in Eureka, and it is 34 km. John was a contractor in Walton and Ruakura Farming in 1911 then his family moved to a new home right in the middle of Ruakura Farm of Institutes from 1914 until he retired as a teamster in 1946 or before that year. Hilda met Alan at the dance club (but I may be wrong), and from there Alan landed himself a job working at the Ruakura until he retired. Alan – Shorty always takes me, my sister, two brothers to see the farms during the school holidays. I don’t recall that my sister and two of my brothers were regular visits or less because I was the most frequent visitors to the farms where Shorty worked, to shoot ducks as to cull the number of ducks, rabbits and possums at the farms, and other animals. I recalled there was a small project which wallaby there. Of course one of the fazed memories was alive
‘electric shock’ fence for I was not wearing a pair of gumboots and Shorty teased me for this. We do have another cousin from my mother’s side – John M. Follett (late scientist of plants and foods Research including Myoga Ginger)
The Ruakura Research Institutes have expanded and changed the name to AgResearch Ltd (formerly known as New Zealand Pastoral Agriculture Research Institute Limited) from 1992.
Life in Eureka 