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Weedons - the Royal New Zealand Air Force's smallest station
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For a period in the 1940s–60s, the small Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) station at Weedons brought a different kind of military presence to Selwyn.
During World War II, New Zealand’s air force expanded rapidly. A continuous supply of equipment was needed to support this growing force and keep its hundreds of aeroplanes in the air. These supplies were dispersed from four RNZAF stores depots around the country.
Weedons was the site of No. 3 Stores Depot. From 1944 until 1960, it serviced all the RNZAF’s South Island stations, from Nelson down to Dunedin. A private railway siding off the main trunk line meant that supplies could be moved in and out easily.
A huge variety of material was housed at Weedons, from aircraft spare parts to every-thing needed to support the everyday lives of the air force’s airmen and airwomen - flying boots, uniform shirts, caps, cups and saucers, cutlery, furniture, and more. Thousands of items, like those displayed here, were stored within nine warehouses totalling 37,000 m2.
During World War II, New Zealand’s air force expanded rapidly. A continuous supply of equipment was needed to support this growing force and keep its hundreds of aeroplanes in the air. These supplies were dispersed from four RNZAF stores depots around the country.
Weedons was the site of No. 3 Stores Depot. From 1944 until 1960, it serviced all the RNZAF’s South Island stations, from Nelson down to Dunedin. A private railway siding off the main trunk line meant that supplies could be moved in and out easily.
A huge variety of material was housed at Weedons, from aircraft spare parts to every-thing needed to support the everyday lives of the air force’s airmen and airwomen - flying boots, uniform shirts, caps, cups and saucers, cutlery, furniture, and more. Thousands of items, like those displayed here, were stored within nine warehouses totalling 37,000 m2.
Image: The upper shelf for the Weedons RNZAF air station exhibition, containing three objects on loan from the collection of the Air Force Museum of New Zealand. Left to right:
RNZAF officer’s service dress cap, worn as part of the standard issue uniform, 1950s.
Pewter tankard with glass bottom, presented to the RNZAF Weedons Officers’ Mess, 1950s. In the military, a mess is where officers and other personnel eat, socialise, and live.
RNZAF cup and saucer, Crown Lynn Potteries, 1940s. These would have been used in an airman's mess in the 1940s–early 1950s.
An original plan for RNZAF Station Weedons, about 1943. This shows the location of the site, alongside what is now Jones Road, between Templeton and Rolleston.
Image from the collection of the Air Force Museum of New Zealand.
Image from the collection of the Air Force Museum of New Zealand.
Life at Weedons
As a military station, RNZAF Weedons was its own mini community, with accommodation blocks and housing, mess (dining) halls, a bar and canteen, fire station, swimming pool, and sports fields.
With a maximum of 250 personnel, Weedons was also the Air Force’s smallest station. Those who lived and worked there formed close-knit bonds and were renowned for their teamwork and efficiency, which fostered a thriving social and sporting atmosphere.
For the wives of airmen living there, Weedons could feel quite isolated, especially in a time when many women didn’t drive. In the 1950s, the Weedons Wives’ Club provided social contact and activities, and the community hall housed one of the first televisions in New Zealand. Christmas parties were popular occasions for everyone on station.
Image: Air Force personnel with friends and partners at a Christmas party, RNZAF Weedons YMCA, 1944. Image courtesy of the Air Force Museum of New Zealand.
As a military station, RNZAF Weedons was its own mini community, with accommodation blocks and housing, mess (dining) halls, a bar and canteen, fire station, swimming pool, and sports fields.
With a maximum of 250 personnel, Weedons was also the Air Force’s smallest station. Those who lived and worked there formed close-knit bonds and were renowned for their teamwork and efficiency, which fostered a thriving social and sporting atmosphere.
For the wives of airmen living there, Weedons could feel quite isolated, especially in a time when many women didn’t drive. In the 1950s, the Weedons Wives’ Club provided social contact and activities, and the community hall housed one of the first televisions in New Zealand. Christmas parties were popular occasions for everyone on station.
Image: Air Force personnel with friends and partners at a Christmas party, RNZAF Weedons YMCA, 1944. Image courtesy of the Air Force Museum of New Zealand.
Image: Aerial view of RNZAF Station Weedons, 1955. RNZAF Official image courtesy of the Air Force Museum of New Zealand.
Kei te whakaaturia
On display
Image: The middle shelf of the Weedons RNZAF air station exhibition, containing three objects on loan from the collection of the Air Force Museum of New Zealand. Left to right:
On display
Image: The middle shelf of the Weedons RNZAF air station exhibition, containing three objects on loan from the collection of the Air Force Museum of New Zealand. Left to right:
Engine cylinder from a De Havilland Tiger Moth. Tiger Moth biplanes were the main aircraft type used for initial pilot training during World War II.Altimeter Mk XIII D with original box.
No. 3 Stores Depot housed thousands of spare parts for aircraft – from wings, propellers and engines to small instruments like this World War II-era altimeter.
Black leather Air Force flying boots, 1952 pattern.
While these boots are well worn, dozens of new pairs would have lined the shelves at Weedons.
No. 3 Stores Depot housed thousands of spare parts for aircraft – from wings, propellers and engines to small instruments like this World War II-era altimeter.
Black leather Air Force flying boots, 1952 pattern.
While these boots are well worn, dozens of new pairs would have lined the shelves at Weedons.
The station in later years
In 1960, the Weedons station came under the control of RNZAF Station Wigram, in Christchurch. From then it was used mostly as accommodation for personnel working at Wigram, who would take an Air Force bus to and from work each day.
Image: Air Training Corps staff at RNZAF Station Weedons, 1949. RNZAF Official image, Air Force Museum of New Zealand.
Weedons was also the site of an ‘aerial farm’ for the United States Navy, providing communication functions connected with Operation Deep Freeze in Antarctica. During the 1960s–70s, some of the former Air Force buildings were home to the Christchurch M?ori Carpentry Training School. By the 1980s, most of the station had been disposed of. The warehouses that remained were used by the Air Force Museum of New Zealand as off-site collections stores. After the Museum moved the last of its collection out of Weedons, the sole surviving stores building was demolished in 2019. Today, only the aerial farm remains, its collection of radio masts still visible from Main South Road.
Image: American servicemen with the United States Antarctic Program, with some of their equipment stored at RNZAF Station Weedons, 1957. RNZAF Official image, Air Force Museum of New Zealand.
Image: Air Training Corps pennant, 1951 (replica) at the top of the exhibition case.
The ATC (air cadets) held regular courses and camps at Weedons in the late 1940s and 1950s.
Replica of an original from the collection of the Air Force Museum of New Zealand.
Weedons - the Royal New Zealand Air Force's smallest station. Selwyn Stories, accessed 19/04/2026, https://selwynstories.selwynlibraries.co.nz/nodes/view/5914
