Anzac Day in Reporoa to feature unveiling of settler families’ photo wall

Private Henare Reweti of the 28th Māori Battalion B Company will be remembered at the Reporoa Anzac Day service. Photo / Supplied and Google Maps

Hundreds of people are expected to attend a Reporoa Anzac Day service where a photo wall unveiling will celebrate returned servicemen settler families.

Alan Wills was among the small group of locals who for the past 18 months researched and worked on a photographic memorial wall for the community near Rotorua.

The 230 frames celebrate returned servicemen who settled in the area following both world wars, the Korean and Vietnam wars.

This year will be 80 years since World War II ended.

Wills said the Reporoa Memorial Hall closed about 18 months ago for repair works.

The plan was for the hall to be accessible on Anzac Day and in the days before so the wall could be arranged.

Among those remembered was Reporoa’s Private Henare Reweti, killed aged 29 in Crete, Greece, in May 1941.

He was in B Company of the 28th Māori Battalion.

Wills said a big crowd between 500 and 600 people were expected.

The crowd would include people from Australia and around New Zealand, as well as locals and the families of those framed.

Wills described the post-war Reporoa population boom as he explained the significance of the unveiling.

After both world wars, an influx of families ventured into farming and in the 1950s and early 1960s, 170 families moved to the Reporoa area.

Wills said they laid the foundation stones for the current community.

“They’d be amazed at the development of the area.”

Industry had grown in the area, Wills said. So had the number of sealed roads, and there was good schooling.

Mataarae Marae will host a 9am service held at Mataarae Marae today.

At 9.45am a march will proceed from the Reporoa Primary School to the hall, where the service including the unveiling will begin at 10.15am.

A book including the photos and information of each serviceman and woman will be available for purchase.

A set of new blinds will hang above the frames in the hall to help viewers beat the glare from the north-facing windows above, thanks to a Rotorua Lakes Council Rural Community Board decision.

Monday’s board decision was to allocate $4358 of devolved funding for the purchase and installation of the blinds.

Other funding decisions at the meeting included reallocating $5000 for commercial heat pumps at the Reporoa hall, where repairs are incomplete, to the Mamaku War Memorial Hall.

This would be used as needed if the cost went above the $14,240 already allocated and the $6242 it added to be allocated from its 2025/2026 budget.

A decision on funding heat pumps at the Reporoa hall would be made at a later date.

Laura Smith is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. She previously reported general news for the Otago Daily Times and Southland Express, and has been a journalist since 2019.

- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.