This is the house where it all began. Douglas MacDiarmid was born on 14 November 1922 in an upstairs bedroom of the MacDiarmid family home at 24 Huia Street, Taihape. It remained his room into adulthood, a haven of vivid imaginings and fertile dreams in which many a boyish prank was also hatched.
Taihape is a small rural town in the centre of the North Island of New Zealand, with three rumbling volcanoes nearby. In the 1920s, it was an important train stop on the railway line between Auckland and Wellington, and still services a wide farming community. The town is probably better known as New Zealand’s ‘Gumboot Throwing Capital of the World’, or the scene of late Australasian comic John Clarke’s unforgettable Fred Dagg exploits, than for the creative impact of its rugged landscape.
24 Huia Street was both a gracious residence and a surgery for his father’s busy district medical practice. Gordon MacDiarmid bought the practice and its purpose-built house before marrying Mary Tolme in 1919. The energetic couple were keen gardeners in their spare time and transformed the spacious grounds into a wonderful property of flower beds, vegetable gardens, shrubs and trees during the 34 years they lived there.