Making New Zealand - Forestry

New Zealand's impressive native forests awed early Māori. Later European settlers set about building towns and exporting timber for profit. By the early twentieth century, forestry dominated New Zealand's economy. In this episode of Making New Zealand, experts discuss the post-colonial thirst for kauri wood and gum, and the government's then daring investment in mass planting pine trees, in the Bay of Plenty's Kāingaroa Forest. Former bushmen remember the heyday of local sawmills, before the government's "big sell off" of forestry assets and protection of native forests. 

That's not bush — only one kind of bush.

– Former sawmill worker Joe Pittims argues that pine plantations are not 'real' native bush

Key Cast & Crew

Laurie Clarke

Producer

George Murahidy

Cinematographer

Vincent Burke

Executive Producer

Ken Sparks

Editor

Mark Clare

Narrator

Kathleen Mantel

Director