The Kauaeranga Valley in New Zealand’s North Island was once covered in vast kauri forests.
The trees were immense with thick, straight trunks.
They had relatively few knots, and were easy to work and nail.
Initially, the settlers cut the kauri trees that grew in isolation near the sea.
The first shipment of kauri timber left New Zealand in November 1820.
One way to transport them was to float them down rivers and streams.
In one of the biggest-ever drive in the 1920s, some 28,000 logs were sent downriver.
Some 3,000 driving dams once existed throughout New Zealand, with the last built during the late 1930s.
The magnificent kauri forests once covered 1.6 million hectares of the northern half of the North Island.
Logging, fire and clearing for farming have left barely 7,000 hectares of native forest today.
This dam is in the Kopowai River, Mercury Bay.
The double gate was designed to let the water rush away quickly and give strength to the construction.
Over 8 million meters of kauri have been driven through this dam.
Photo credit: Tudor Collins
The Dancing Camp dam in 1921 is about to be released.
When the moment comes, a bushman yanks the wire.
Photo credit: Tudor Collins
Close-up of the swinging planks.
Photo credit:Bruce & Robyn Dunning/Flickr
A kauri dam in the Great Barrier island.
Photo credit:www.doc.govt.nz
The Dancing Camp Kauri Dam.
It is likely they would have then been barged to a sawmill, probably at Whitianga.
Photo credit:www.nz-native-riverwood.com
A kauri logging gang, circa 1840s.
Photo credit:www.nz-native-riverwood.com
A giant kauri tree in Warkworth, New Zealand.
Photo credit:Chase Cheviron/Flickr
Sources:www.doc.govt.nz/TerraNature/Wilderness Mag/www.kauri2000.co.nz/www.uniquelynz.com
