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Ruawaro's
Central Memorial Hall is a brick hall opened in 1953, built as a Second World War memorial for the small mining and farming settlements of Rotongaro, Ruawaro, Pukekapia and Waikokowai. It features a wooden table commemorating those who served, and a bronze plaque commemorating the eight
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were raised on a local dairy farm and attended
Ruawaro Combined School during the 1960s and early 1970s. They left home and moved to Christchurch in 1975, at the age of 17. Staff and students at the school compiled memorabilia from their time at the school when they returned during the 1990s.
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Ruawaro attracted national media attention when local couple Samuel and
Christobel Lakey were murdered on their Ruawaro farm on Sunday 15 October 1933. Christobel's body was found by neighbours who were investigating why the couple's cows hadn't been milked.
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Samuel Lakey had purchased the neighbouring property from Bayly's father, who he had worked for as a carpenter. Relations were initially friendly, but soured when
Christobel Lakey was said to have accused Bayly of having murdered his niece.
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Bayly had been farming in
Ruawaro since November 1928. To some locals, he was a "handsome dare-devil fellow" with a "magnetic" personality. To others, he was a scary and arrogant man who rode around the area on his horse.
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Samuel Lakey's remains were finally reunited with this wife's remains at Huntly
Cemetery at a ceremony in 2015, attended by the granddaughter of one of the neighbours.
114:, covers their often difficult childhood in the deeply conservative rural community. The film screened at film festivals around the world, and won awards at the
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An intensive and high-profile homicide investigation using ground-breaking forensic science led to neighbour
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As of 2017, Puketotara
Station, a local intensive beef and lamb finishing farm, is owned by an equity firm.
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Ruawaro
Combined School is a co-educational state primary school, with a roll of 35 as of August 2024.
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324:: Ruawaro Combined School / Diva Productions Limited. Circa 1990s.
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202:"Ruawaro farmer Samuel Lakey buried 82 years after his murder"
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and the 2009 New
Zealand Film and Television Awards.
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336:"Untouchable Girls: Film Listings and Awards"
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184:. Farmers Weekly NZ. 11 September 2017.
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383:: The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls
253:O'Brien, Joanne (21 October 2015).
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255:"Murdered couple finally reunited"
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272:Topp, Jools and Lynda (2003).
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361:"Dragon Award Winners"
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320:. Held at
142:References
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134:Education
405:18 April
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278:Auckland
61:History
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