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Story: Kiwi

Sling camp kiwi

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Sling camp kiwi

During the First World War, New Zealand soldiers were increasingly referred to as Kiwis, and they seem to have accepted the name. At the end of the war, when New Zealand soldiers in England were waiting at Sling camp on Salisbury Plain to return home, they occupied their time by carving this large kiwi in the chalk hill above the camp.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: Eph-A-WAR-WI-1916-03

by Fred Wright

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Jock Phillips, Kiwi – Kiwi and people: early history, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/ephemera/10190/sling-camp-kiwi (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Jock Phillips, published 1 March 2009.