Location: Caroline Bay, beside the railway underpass. The air raid shelters were at each end of Caroline Bay
Access: Public area, specific shelter remains may not be visible
Associated years: Second World War; 1941 to 1944
Associated people/groups: Timaru community, British Houses of Parliament, wartime London, local commemorators, Timaru Borough Council, Emergency Precautions Service, local civilians, children and families
Timaru was emotionally and politically connected to Britain during the war. Bombing raids on Britain, including London, were followed closely in New Zealand. A damaged brick from Parliament brought that overseas destruction into a local public place. It is a small object, but it makes the war physical. A brick damaged in Britain becomes part of Timaru’s landscape.
The Station Street air raid shelter heritage report records that by 20 December 1941, shelters had been built at Station Street, Perth Street, each end of Caroline Bay and other sites around Timaru. At least 34 shelters appear to have been built in the town, including at schools.
This stop is best paired with the memorial wall. Caroline Bay remembered the First World War as a place overseas, but during the Second World War it also became part of home-front preparation. The same public recreation area that held memorial plaques also held civil-defence anxiety.
Find a WuHoo: Find the plaque and ask why a piece of bomb-damaged London was placed at Caroline Bay. Stand at the Bay and ask how it changes the place if you imagine sirens, shelters and children being trained to respond to attack.
Embedded in the wall above the plaque is a brick from English Parliament buildings containing a bullet hole from an German aerial attack.
THIS STONE WAS PART OF THE STRUCTURE
OF THE BRITISH HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT
DAMAGED BY ENEMY AIR RAIDS IN
MAY 1941 AND HAS BEEN PLACED HERE
AS A TRIBUTE TO THE COURAGE AND
ENDURANCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND
WHEN BRITAIN STOOD ALONE IN DEFENCE
OF HER RIGHT AS A FREE PEOPLE AND
IN THE CAUSE OF DEMOCRACY
War Veterans Home in Timaru at the Beverly c 1965. Taken from the vegetable garden on the north side of the property, showing the managers flat on the far right. South Canterbury Museum. 2022/060.20
25 pounder field gun placed outside the Beverly Veterans Home (later the site of the RSA), Timaru, dated 18 May 1972. Bremford Studios, Timaru. South Canterbury Museum T6099 [1972]
Demonstration of a military gun. These photos were taken for the Queen for her Jubilee. 70 years of service to the commonwealth.
