Bushman

Godzone is “timber country” in this seventh slot in the New Zealand Now series. The NFU film looks at the world of the Kiwi bushman, as milling is providing the raw material for a postwar housing boom. The narrators provide a good keen guide to life in the remote and tiny (six houses) North Island town of Oraukura, where timber men fell giant native trees during the day and split kindling after work. For the men it’s a hard, but good life; for their wives it’s “pretty dull”. The Axemen’s Carnival in Taumarunui features OSH-unsanctioned woodchopping in socks. 

And the Charles Hardy Cup is filled with beer, the bushman's favourite drink, for a toast to the winner!

– Narrator John Humphries, describing the Axemen's Carnival in Taumarunui

Key Cast & Crew

Christopher Small

Composer

John Mallitte

Editor, Writer, Director

Don Oakley

Camera

John Humphries

Narrator (Voice of Dave Tait)

Briton Chadwick

Narrator