# Kauri Milling - Nostalgia post with photo's



## sika (May 27, 2013)

Forgive me if this is not in the right section.

I nearly have my own chain mill up and running. Using a MS660 mag with 36" bar on a 36" Alaskin. Looking forward to getting into some timber. More on that later.

I found some old historic pictures of kauri tree milling in the Waitakere ranges area, in particular Huia. Quite a lot of photos actually. Thought I would upload some so you'all could see how us kiwis did it back in the day. 

My initial quest was related to some sort of jack in order to get big logs off the ground, which is when my father said try and find an old timber jack. Apparently an item that was invented in NZ for just that job. This first pic shows each of the men using one to lift a big kauri barrel.





No chainsaws in those days!!





An extract form  Te Huia Tours  webiste below

_...between 1850 - 1930 Huia was the centre of the Kauri tree felling industry. Early industrial settlers eager to work and make a new future in New Zealand worked long hard days doing back breaking work in the surrounding hills and valleys of Huia, cutting down the tall straight Kauri trees that would fetch a good price when sold due to the strong and durable nature of the Kauri wood.

Unfortunately most of the Kauri trees in New Zealand where cut down during the Kauri milling periods. The wood was sent to either Auckland for building new homes for the steady growing population or sent to England. Sadly no one at the time was concerned with the irreversible effect of cutting down some of the oldest, largest trees in the world, and eventually destroying an entire eco system. New Zealand once had over 1200,000 hectares of Kauri trees, now there is less than 0.3 present of these proud trees left standing. Luckily there are still some impressive Kauri trees still living in and around Huia and the Waitakere ranges. _

I have a lot of these pics if anyone is interested I will upload more.

Here is a pic of 3 gents holding their jacks





Good to see pics of guys getting the job done without all the _"red tape"_. 

Proud that kiwi's are amongst the best loggers in the world.


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## Dave Boyt (May 28, 2013)

Tough men and big trees. Glad someone back then thought to get some photos! Thanks for posting!


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## flashhole (May 28, 2013)

Cool pics but I don't think I'd like to be the guy working in the hole in pic 2.


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## sika (May 28, 2013)

Glad you enjoyed them.

Few more.


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## flashhole (May 28, 2013)

Any dates you can assign to the pics? Pretty good quality photos for black and white.


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## sika (May 28, 2013)

No exact dates sorry. 

Probably 1915-1916 and likely taken by photographer  Albert Percy Godber who captured a lot of this history on film.

This is one of Albert Percy Godber's I think from the same series. I found this online.





Given a lot of his pics have the same scenery and I think I actually have one of his in the lot I rescued, I am assuming he was the photographer "of the day" for the era.

These are scans of prints, a local school was throwing them out.

I still fish here (below)





Probably bound for Sydney Australia or maybe even San Francisco (yes it went there too).

It is estimated that of all the mighty Kauri logged, 16% actually ended up getting used. Huge wastage. 0.3% of the original kauri forest in NZ remain standing.


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## Pfin (May 28, 2013)

Thanks for posting! I remember seeing Tane Mahuta and some of the other giants a few years back. They are amazing trees to behold.


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## cityslicker (May 30, 2013)

Thanks for taking the time to post these pictures. This is amazing stuff! I would love to see more of them.


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## KiwiBro (Jun 3, 2013)

Sika, thanks for the pics. You'll find a few more but not quite so old if you contact the Bergman's up North at Mahoe sawmills. They've got some great pics of big-ish Kauri and timber jacks.


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## sika (Jun 4, 2013)

KiwiBro said:


> Sika, thanks for the pics. You'll find a few more but not quite so old if you contact the Bergman's up North at Mahoe sawmills. They've got some great pics of big-ish Kauri and timber jacks.



Cheers. Cousins are from Paparoa ways they have a fair bit to do with the Matakohe Museum.

Was talking to a mate last night who reckons he has one of these timber jacks in a shed out the back. Will check it out and post a pic when I see it.


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## KiwiBro (Jun 5, 2013)

Had to stop and throw a rope around this one this Summer and then measure the rope when I got home. Can't recall the size but it's pushing the big-o-meter pretty hard.


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## redheadwoodshed (Jun 6, 2013)

Great old pictures of how it was done then. Thanks.


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## Big Beech (Jun 8, 2013)

flashhole said:


> Cool pics but I don't think I'd like to be the guy working in the hole in pic 2.



exactly, and that's where as far as I am aware the term " underdog" comes from 

simon


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## StihlKiwi (Jun 8, 2013)

sika said:


> Cheers. Cousins are from Paparoa ways they have a fair bit to do with the Matakohe Museum.
> 
> Was talking to a mate last night who reckons he has one of these timber jacks in a shed out the back. Will check it out and post a pic when I see it.



The old man has a couple of those timber jacks. One is like the ones in the photos and the other is all steel with a removable jack handle. I spent a couple of days puling out fence posts with them a few years ago and they're pretty damn heavy


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