A bit more about the area

A wee leap forward for a bit : I think it was 1984 when there was a big flood and a few things happened. The Herbert Hill slumped and the main electricity line had to be shifted - actually this was put through my paddock on a temporary basis and it is still there today; illegally! But I'm not on about this yet. The Ministry of Works in clearing the clay from the road, decided to dump it in the middle of the river - at Frame's Crossing. This was an illogical thing to do for the river bed is gravel, which rolls down to the sea during floods, but the clay caused a change in the flow. Allan Ross had a crop of turnips in his paddock beside the river, but the next flood caused all this to wash away because of the clay left in the river. Previously the river bed was reasonably tidy but now it is an expanse of gravel that is prone to weed growth that is expensive to control.


The flood though was as high as I have ever seen it! It washed the road out over the gully just before the sawmill and it left a huge log on the bridge to prevent access to the forest. To carry that large log meant there was a massive amount of water! We removed the log and access was again possible, but then I heard another story: Jock Anderson told me that he was living in Nat Stevenson's house and he had been to the Herbert Store with his wife, Jessie, each on horseback. When they reached the bridge, there was water about ankle deep flowing across it! He rode across, but Jessie was afraid, so he returned on foot and led her, mounted on her horse across!

He said he had seen the river like that one other time! There is no way that I would cross that bridge under those circumstances!

Of course the flood caused damage to the Herbert water scheme pumps - flooding out the pump shed which was very high, and filling the intake with sand. As this was a community project we supplied a pump and a couple of men to clean it out and this took about a week to do! The flood also caused a lot of damage to forest roads and it was expensive to carry out the repairs.
As well the culvert crossing the Glenburnie Creek was washed away preventing access to Cosy Dell.

It is amazing how quickly these episodes are forgotten!

Back now: Just West of the bridge was a track down to the river bed - it passed through a small plantation of Radiata Pine (huge trees) - this is what we called 'Maggie's Pit'. We needed road metal (gravel) on our roads to provide good all weather access, and this is where we sourced our road metal.

As I have said elsewhere, the Waianakarua River is one of the very few actually owned by the landowner, and Margaret MacKay owned this area. The pit had been used for years, and Phil Wilkie told me how he has won the contract to spread gravel on the Herbert Hill (years ago) and had loaded his trucks by hand, using a shovel! The truck carried 4 cubic yards!

Anyway Margaret usually did not charge us for the gravel, instead we would clear the gorse from her sections further along the river. Cliff Blaikie bought these sections much later.

Grave's Dam today

At Graves Dam there remain the concrete abutments of the water wheel that drove the small flour mill. There were also some of the sheds made from sawn timber. I am told that the mill did not operate for very long.

It may not be well remembered, but there was another dam, just South of Sharp's Corner. This dam was to provide a catchment area for the Phoenix Mill at Waianakarua. One morning though this dam was not there (1965/6); someone, for some reason had blown it up!

There are a few stories about the bridge - Skippy, the driver for Waitaki Transport carted posts out of the forest on a regular basis. Now originally, the bridge had trusses going across the top to hold it together - these were removed during some modification. Anyway one time Skippy load his truck so high that it jammed under the trusses, so he walked to HQ for assistance. I suggested letting the air out of the tyres, which was enough to let him pass through - we had a compressor there to top the tyres up later. Another time he left his Hiab (hydraulic crane) up and smashed it off on the first truss before he managed to stop! The bridge was made of Australian hardwood of very high quality! (some decorates our garden)

Charlie James did a similar thing with his Hiab, this time unloading at the mill and returning into the forest for another load. By then the trusses had been removed, but he wiped out all the power lines crossing the road!

One day it snowed, and I sent the forest workers home. I put chains on the old Commer truck and headed into the forest to see if I could find a pig. Bert's Mark I Consel could not climb the hill past the bridge - it was too icy.

I stopped just past his car and tied a rope to my truck. Bert just touched his car and off it slid backwards toward the river - we both feared that it would slip over the bank into the river! Bert began to make a move, but his feet went from under him and he fell flat on his back. There was comedy in this and I could not stifle a laugh! He must have hurt himself, but then I have seen the old bugger break a finger playfighting and never let on! The car did not go over the bank and I eventually pulled it to safety - I was mildly ashamed that I laughed, and feel guilty that the memory still makes me smile!

Oh yes I did get a big, fat pig!

More about the area.

Maggie Cunningham had not sold many of the crib sections, so there were not many local people in residence. Keith and Pat Gibson were next to the Sawmill. They became great friends and our families interacted well over the years.

Almost opposite was an old bridge from a ship that was going to be used as a crib, but it never happened and was taken away after a number of years. Charles Jones had a crib almost opposite the Headquarters Site - back off the road and there were many types of plants in the well kept area. Rather nice hazelnuts.

Next was Goblin Woods Old Mr & Mrs Matches - Bill died and I moved into some huts close to Mrs Matches and she looked after me. I mowed her lawn using an on spring-release starter. I would spend an hour getting the thing started and I would do no more than a round of cutting when she would bring drinks because 'I must be so tired!'.

One of he tricks was to put a pinch of salt in a cup of coffee to improve the flavor, and to be decadent, she would whip cream and place it on ginger-nut buscuits, then sprinkle with raspberry jelly crystals - yum! She taught me to cook wild pork or venison using tin foil and fruit like pineapple - yum again.

Along the road a bit was Tayor's crib, and that family regularly holidayed there. Still further the Leggetts had built a small holiday house. The next section was owned by Dr Laing and his wife, and the section above Grave's Dam was bought by the Gillies - the put an old gypsy type horse drawn carriage there. Opposite was Maggie Cunningham's empty house. Across the river to the south was Bert and Edna Moir, and a little further along Reid Road, Phil Bennett farmed.

To the North was Cona Lynn owned by Margaret MacKay (and the abandoned golf course with it's sod club house), then Ireland's house and just a little on was Dr & Mrs King's house - the latter three did not go there regularly, but old Johnny Watson would putter there each day on his green, BSA Bantam motorbike as he was the gardener and cared for the Rhododendrons and Azaleas.

The Blakeboroughs lived on the Herbert Hill, above the railway line - someone told me that there was an official station there 'if you stand there, passenger trains are supposed to stop!' Well I don't know, but certainly access was available because there were strong, railway-made gates there. A sailing tragedy saw the Blakeboroughs move to town and I visited Don in the Railways Signal House when I purchased the land off him. On the corner by the bridge Freddy Robertson was killed by his jersey bull - he was a show bull and Freddy thought of him as a pet!

Across the river, on the flats Billy Sharp farmed, his house was on the famed 'Sharp's Corner' - the scene of many road accidents, Billy marked his gate post each time there was an accident, and even featured in the newspaper! Francis stayed on after Billy's death and exceeding 75 years, she still slept in the bed she was concieved in - that has to be recorded!

The road was a gravel one until Alan Dick's move into the area prompted the Waitaki County Council to tar seal it. There had be droughts and a rabbit plague but despite this grose thrived - again Allan Dick had used his influence to try seeding the clouds with CO2 ice to cause rain. Well the dry finally ended and as always in North Otago, once the rain starts, it doesn't know when to stop!

Bob Collins

I have just heard with sadness that Bob Collins has died at the age of 84.
He was a friend and mentor of the 1962 intake of Ranger Trainees. Actually he was he was a lecturer and teacher as well as being a guide to us. We were 29 young bucks, and I suppose some of us were hard to handle - but he did a great job!

Later Bob would come to Herbert Forest to teach me about work study - the science of quantifying work output and creating bonus schemes to encourage higher production by increasing the hourly rate in relation to work output.
I enjoyed those times and his guidance about running a small forest. Manay of his teachings remain with me.

Bob you've earned a spell, peace to you.

Headquarters Site and Around

From SH1 you turn left on to Breakneck Road, but according to the Cadastral Maps held in the office, the road should be named Middle Ridge Road. The road passes over the Waianakarua River - the bridge was not build by the Waitaki County Council at all; it was privately built, paid for by the Irelands. Margaret MacKay showed me some photos of the bridge under construction and I am not sure if G T Gillies built or, or their GMC with a crane on was simply hired in but the photo was of the truck. I would suspect though that they built it.
Before the bridge was built, Frame's Crossing was used - turning off just before the Sawmill, crossing the river, then on to Reid Road and back on to Middle Ridge Road. Middle Ridge Road climbs up the hill past Mrs Thorpe's/Allan Dick's house, into the forest and on up the ridge to Mount Misery Road, which ends up at the Red Hut on Glencoe Run.
Breakneck Road used to start where Middle Ridge starts its climb, and now while the botton half is a good enough road, where it climbs over Diamond Hill it has become an unused track, so Diamond hill or Rodman's Roads are used.

The old HQ site was Rodman's homestead on the corner of Breakneck and Rodman's Road. This old house was built using indigenous timbers and the T&G pannelling of the ceiling was Matai - painted over but! There were large Eucalyptus globulus trees there and a small line of Ngiao. The Store Shed was adzed panels of Rimu and roof trusses were poles of Red Matipo, Myrsine australis the qualities of which are unknown today - the wood is striking because of the medallary rays.

It was decided that a new HQ site was needed, so 40 acres of river flat was purchased off Maggie Cunningham. This was land bounded by Breakneck Road and the Waianakarua River. This was one of the very few rivers in New Zealand where the landowner owned the river bed - to the center of the average water course.
Maggie Cunningham's father had been burnt to death on this flat when he was burning off gorse there! She subdivided sections for Crib ownership - holiday houses - and all the survey pegs were established by NZFS surveyors. Plans were actually drawn up to make a forest villiage there, but that did not happen.
Maggie was an elderly woman and she called into the Dunedin Office because she could not visulise the sections she had sold off. She had had to donate an area for 'recreation' which was a rough gulley to the NE of the property. Maggie was fiesty and District Office turned her on me, to show her the sections. I prepared for her, by locating all the pegs and painting them white. When she arrived, I gave her a cup of tea and a biscuit (well Albert did, but I told him to!) and I simply treated her with respect. She understood the layout completely and she left happy. Dunedin was pleased with the outcome because she mentioned me in the glowing terms elderly women use!

When I arrived, on the forest, there was a new office building, an oil store and four bay garage. Albert was struggling to make a garden, complaining about the lack of water/pressure.
We were to fix that! And create a very popular garden/arboretum and camping ground.

Bert Bennett allowed us to put a large water tank up on the hill opposite, the track was so steep that the transporting truck lost steerage, so Mick had to pull it up with the D6.
That hill was steep; previously it had a crop of pine trees growing on and a person was killed during the harvesting process. But I remember watching Jimmy Blair and Charlie James buldozing it clean - it was spectacular because of the riskiness of it all!

There are some names here that need further discussion, so I will.

Funny how politics creeps in

To the west and south of Diamond Hill are bush gullies which contain quite remarkable examples of remnant Podocarpus forest and I recall noting in my survey book 'merchantable quality Rimu and Miro.' Those were the days when Rimu timber was an important commodity! But this is old indigenous forest with huge Kanuka, Broadleaf, Marble Leaf and all the other mixed Podocarps. Admittedly, the under-scrub was thin because of pigs, deer and possums but it was still beautiful and rare bush.

When Mick was bulldozing the firebreak, the topographical limit he could go to was the actual planting boundary of the compartment.

But according to Geo Wilkinson, the District Forester, it did not look neat on the map! The boundary was not square because a few pockets (gulley bottoms) of bush thrusting up into the proposed pine plantation.

Old George! He was an English forester with a neat trimmed beard, and thinking back, perhaps he was a bit nervey because he shook a bit. I remember one morning smoko (tea) when he became excited about a tale of pig hunting, he absent mindedly ate all of his lunch! Realising the fact only when he folded the brown paper bag that carried it in! Another time he was staying at a boarding house in Oamaru, but had wanted first to catch a pig - he like wild pork. I shot the pig alright, and gave him the job of gutting it and carrying to the truck - well, after all, I was carrying the rifle! His clothes became saturated with with blood and I can still imagine the horror of the boarding house proprietors thinking he had been involved in some massacre or other!

Anyway, George came up with a plan to 'tidy' up the boundary of the Diamond Hill Block. I was to cut a straight line on a designated bearing to act as the permanent boundary. That was one of my skills and I cut an accurate definable boundary to work to. Then everything above this boundary was to be poisoned using a substance called ammate. Notches had to be cut in the trees and the crystals applied with an old spoon. Once the trees were defoliated, the bush was to be underplanted in the more valuable species, Douglas Fir! Never mind the intrinsic value of the indigenous forest!

So I sent Bert and Gib into the forest each armed with an axe to cut the notches and to apply the ammate. After about an hour, I returned there thinking I would stop them because the morality of the exercise was nagging at me. To my surprise, Bert and Gib were sitting down on the roadside looking glum. They stood as I approached.

'We are not too happy doing this job,' Bert told me, 'can you find someone else to do it?'

'Not happy about poisoning the bush eh.' It was my statement and reply.

'What can be done to stop this?' Gib asked.

Both these guys were as loyal to the forest as people could be, and both had served in WWII, so they knew about orders from 'on high'.

'Well I doubt if George will do the job himself.' I replied, thinking for an answer. 'So if it doesn't happen then it doesn't happen. Maybe we should enlist the aid of Alan Dick. He could talk to the minister (of forests). I can't really do anything because of my position here but I'm cobbery with old Alan. If one of you could write him a letter and I could explain things to him on the quiet.'

Bert said he would write the letter. I had a lot of time for Bert - he had courage and a sense of 'right'.

Alan Dick was our local MP and a mate of mine. I had even blasted some rock for him to use as a feature wall for his house, and I helped him establish some trees and shrubs in his garden. Many a time I shared the hospitality of Alan and his wife Betty as we discussed many issues, setting the world to rights.

Oh yes they bought the property from old Mrs Thorpe, a lovely old widow, but the house had an earlier, sinister history, or was that just rumor? Another [old] woman had lived there who was apparently an associate of the infamous Minnie Dean - some believe there are babies buried somewhere there - oooh. Maybe its just an urban myth!

Sometimes around New Year, Betty and Alan would host us forestry boys for drinks and bites. Alan was never backward in sharing his whiskey - it came in half gallon flagons! A few of those sessions produced the odd headache and I recall one 'morning after' when Bert sat in pain with his hat pulled over his eyes to protect then from the glare of the morning sun. Convalescing he was! Alan passed by in his car and tooted. 'Vote catching bastard!' Bert muttered. He didn't really mean it.

Anyway, Bert wrote the letter and I spoke to Alan who wrote a letter to the minister; simply asking,'Why are they poisoning native bush at Herbert Forest?'

So the minister asks the Conservator and the Conservator asks the District Ranger and I guess the District Ranger asked the District Forester, George They got cold feet! The answer came back to Alan, through all the channels of course.

'There is no poisoning of native bush taking place at Herbert Forest!'

District Office was furious! But we locals had made a pact nobody was going to say anything! Simply deny all knowledge of any letter to anyone!

Keith Prior, the District Ranger came to pay us a visit, smoke was still coming out of his ears. But I knew him to be a forester! So I took him up there and asked him to give me time to mark out a walking track, so I returned him to HQ for a cup of tea. I  used strips of survey cloth to mark [flag] out a proposed walking track, a loop, through the best of the indigenous forest area,  past some of the very special trees.

Keith saw the potential of the track and readily agreed to save the bush and allow us to form the track. Bert and Gib were much happier doing that job!

In those days primary schools used Camp Iona as a base and thousands of children passed through the area each year. This track was to become a highlight for them - sometimes I would guide them and give a talk.

On one occasion, I took a group of Catholic girls and a couple of Nuns, and to thank me, one of the Nuns told me they would sing a song for me. Well a rough, tough, insensitive forestry man finds it difficult to face such things! So after the song I thanked them, at the same time watching my feet as I kicked off the imaginary mud from my boots.

'Oh, we are so please you liked it!' smiled the Nun and began conducting again to give me an encore!

Diamond Hill

Local knowledge, dissipates with time, which is a good reason for telling some of these stories.

Diamond Hill is a lower hill near the front of Herbert Forest and a public road (Breakneck)climbed to gain access to Glencoe Run, Mount Misery and The Red Hut.

The area had been a coal mine - lignite of poor quality, but it did have a market in the early days. Consequently there were something like twenty mine shafts, all registered with the mines department. I have a story about one on Rodman's Road - someone may have to remind me about that. There is a leading ridge which comes to an area now planted in Larch, and it was on this boundary that Mick Hill and Gordon Taylor cut manuka firewood. They used an old W12 tractor on steel, spiked wheels to pull it out.

When I arrived the old miners' hut was still there, and I'm not too sure what happened to it, but it was taken away - perhaps by Mick who wanted a hunting hut over on Shepherd's Creek.

Breakneck Road was named after an accident where oxen were pushed to their deaths by logs they were toting.

There were a couple of open shafts visible and some coal remnants - oh yes I tried to burn some, but it was slow and it stunk! Very interesting rock formation, but buried now under a second crop of Radiata Pine.

A policeman named Gideon Anderson owned the 300 acre piece of land that we called 'Diamond Hill'. He was an absentee land owner and while NZFS wanted to purchase the land, he held out for years. The rest of the forest was planted around it.

By the time he decided to sell the land, it was covered in old man gorse and was going to be a problem prepare the land for planting.

When I arrived on the scene, Mick, with his D6 and Bert Moir, with Dorothy the International grader, were making wide firebreaks in anticipation of the controlled burn that was to take place. It was going to be a tricky one!

Old Russell was back by this time, but he did not want to be in charge of the burn because of the stress it would have on him, so it fell to me. I wrote up a plan, that I never stuck to, but it all went like clockwork because I used the topography and burnt downhill to slow the fire down. Bert and I were a good tean lighting the fire, and the troops were on standby in case of any breakout. None occurred.

There is valuable Podocarpus mixed forest to the south, and somehow a spark landed in the top of a big, old Rimu tree. Smoke wafted from it and the danger it posed forced me to climb down into the gully with a chainsaw and fell the tree, then put out the fire. It was difficult to extinguish it too!

Poor old Russell was not too happy when a survey crew arrived from Tapanui to establish the roadline that is now Diamond Hill Road. The flagged it with white linen strips, so we could follow the line with the D6 dozer. Russell was used to having nobody telling him where to put a road, or anything else, so he ignored the line and went his own way, supervising Mick on the D6.

He took ill again and Mick went on leave, so Russell told me to drive the D6 and go as far as I could before anyone came up from Tapanui. 'You can go above their line, or below their line,' he said before going into hospital, 'but whatever you do, don't go on their bloody line!'

Actually theirs' was a very good line, but I did as Russell wanted - he never did come back.

Once access had been provided and the gorse started to regrow, people from all over wanted to put in a trial to test the best way to control gorse. District Office and chemical companies.

Combinations of chemicals were used 245T and Tordon being the main ones and I learned a lot about spraying, aircraft, helicopters and burning. Also about pilots and chemical reps!

You learn quickly when you are actually 'at the coal face'. And if you expect people to plant trees in gorse, you make it as easy as possible for them - nor among burnt sticks or dead prickles!

The last operation should not be a burn because fire stimulates gorse regrowth! And in drought prone North Otago there are only a few days in a year that are suitable and safe at the same time to burn. The Easterly winds are high in humidity, so the fire does not go so well. Westerly winds are very low in humidity, but strong and unreliable. I remember Keith Prior our District Ranger, complaining to me that we were too late with the burn for planting - but I told him, it was not ready, but he was welcome to take control. He didn't and the burn happened in September, much to the chagrin of the nurseryman. The burn was brilliant and subsequent tree establishment successful. The planting of the whole area was over a three year period.