Two volunteer researchers have joined forces to compile a heritage inventory identifying places in Northland associated with World War II.
Jack Kemp (Kerikeri) and Dr Bill Guthrie (Doubtless Bay) have long shared a fascination with the strong military presence in Northland during the war, and are keen to record the region's military camps and other sites before they are lost.
"During the early 1940s there was a proliferation of military camps in Northland, associated with the US Marines who were going to be sent to fight in the Pacific," Heritage New Zealand's Northland manager Bill Edwards said.
"The people associated with these camps have mostly passed on, and the collective memory is disappearing. Evidence of these places is also often quite ephemeral, so it's important to record them now."
Mr Kemp had been involved with the proposed World War II museum in Vanuatu, while Dr Guthrie, a former professor at the University of Macau, has a personal connection - his father served in the Medical Corps, and his father-in-law was a bomber pilot at Guadalcanal.