All New Zealand Army soldiers complete their initial basic training, the "All Arms Recruit Course" (AARC), at the Waiouru Military Camp. The camp is also the site of the army marae. The marae is the home of Ngati Tumatauenga, "the tribe of the god of war".
In the 1930s the NZ government chose a sheep station located at Waiouru as the location for the training of it's Territorial Forces with the Artillary the first branch of the NZ Army to use the area in 1937 for its annual big shoot.
At the beginning of winter 1940, 800 construction workers built a camp with capacity for the training of 7,000 Territorial soldiers. By christmas 1940, 230 buildings had been errected with 20 kms of streets,water mains, sewers etc and numeous support buildings such as a hospital, 2 film theatres, bakery, library, writing room, tearooms, and "5 institutes". There was no bar and soldiers needed to go to Taihape to buy a beer.
Since the WWII the Waiouru Military Camp has grown considerably and had its most busy period from 1950 to 1972 during the period of compulsory military training.
To day the Waiouru Military Camp continues to be the base for TAD (The Army Depot) and is the intergral training base for the NZ Army. Most of the service people currently posted to Waiouru support traing courses including the All Arms Recruit Course (basic training). From time to time the Singapore Army comes to Waiouru for test firing its large 155 mm howitzer guns as well as to join the NZ Army for joint military training exercises.