History of Omaka

History of Omaka.

Today I am going to be writing about the timeline of the camp Omaka. I will be starting by writing about from where and when the camp started, up until now. Starting from 1925, onwards. Lets see how this place and camp .has changed throughout these decades.

It all started of at the time 1925. The first recorded Scout Camp had taken place, on what was then known as a place called “Gillett Farm”, which was on the banks of the spring-fed ‘Otukaikino Stream’. When the land was first put to use for this camp, the land was covered in gorse, blackberry and broom. During the years there had been some volunteers who helped. The place had been cleared and exotic and native trees had been planted to create a environment for outdoor activities and education.

The camp carried on its journey and continued to do all their normal activities but then, in 1968, a place called ‘Blue Smoke’ lodge had been built and opened. It included a kitchen, dining and sleeping area. But this was later burnt down by unknown causes in 1980.

Moving into the year 1981. During this time an old classroom had been relocated from Brisbane Street, Christchurch to OMaka Scout Camp. Also remember the ‘Blue Smoke’ lodge that had been burnt down? Yea, around the same time that the class room had been relocated, a new hall was built to replace to lodge. About a year later the two buildings had been officially opened on the 20th February 1982, during the founders weekend.

Ok, so we are now in 2005. At this time, the old ‘St Pauls’ Scout Den from Papanui had been donated to Omaka and wass refurbished to what is used at this moment as the bunkroom/conference rooms. As you can see a lot of changes have already been added since Omaka first started this Scout Camp.

That is the history of Omaka up until 2005. I tried to find further information about it recently but nothing much was coming up with the information it just kind of stayed the way it was but with more people joining and it becoming a bigger thing. As you can see a lot has changed with Omaka from when it first started, up until 2005. When I find out some more information, i'll add in. Thank you for reading.