Behind Government Hill

You can find Government Hill, Herbert on Google Earth! It is the highest point on the North Block of the forest 1395' from memory.

We planted the area behind Government Hill in 1965 (its all been harvested now). It is a reasonably steep area, probably too steep for extraction by ground machine - probably hauler, but having said that, modern machines are able to work  on steeper country than we used to!

Mainly the area had a cover of silver tussock, Poa cita and on a reasonably dry day it is easy to burn off. The area goes right down to the boundary, the North Branch of the Waianakarua River. On the other side of the river is run country - that is a large sheep run.

I was keen to protect the forest boundary, and the best protection from fire is native bush. Native bush was regenerating on the run side of the river and I gave it my moral support. However, the landowner made a profit from grass, not bush/scrub and his only tool was fire. He was safe enough to burn it, because fire only travels well uphill. It was always very apparent to me when he tried to burn the area - I saw the smoke! I would go down there with a shovel! This was quite an epic walk really, but I was fit, I guess. As he lit the fire, I would beat it out with my shovel. I was always under cover of smoke or bush and he never did see me! He tried over a few seasons, but as it was a southerly face, I presume he guessed it to be difficult to burn. I guess I won this battle and now the area is under to jurisdiction of the Department of Conservation. I don't think anyone knows what I did :-)

In those days we used mattocks to plant the trees - a method these days condemned as a bad technique. The trees came from Milton, the NZFS nursery. Radiata Pine, in bundles of 25 tied with flax and puddled (dipped in muddy water). On site we heeled them in into pits. The trees were much smaller than those planted today. I have even seen the stems split by frost and the sap that oozed out had become frozen. Even in the most sever drought we achieved at least a 75% survival. As time went on we changed to spade planting and the seedlings were conditioned differently. Today I remain in the nursery industry and our forestry clients impose all sorts of specifications, well we meet them, but you would think that anything less than those specifications would not survive!

Gib Green was the Leading Hand and he led his troops well. He had served in Egypt in WWII and I found him to be a gentleman. He biked from Waianakarua each day and took his turn at being a target for joking. Things like someone putting heavy rocks in his tucker bag for him to carry out of the gully and home! A dew pond frozen over in winter was another trick, someone put is tucker bag in the middle and he had to go out on hands and knees to retrieve it - a dangerous thing, and the crew saw me frown over it. The other dangerous thing was placing his tucker bags in a three foot culvert, and when he went in, someone lit a gorse bush to smoke him out! This was a culture where there was fun and danger in the work place and I tried to keep things in control. But how could I not laugh when I came to supervise them just after lunch. Gib as usual had a snooze after his lunch, and the others (George Mitchell, I bet!) tied Gib's boot laces together and they sneaked away. Gib woke on hearing my approach and tried to hurry off, alas he was lying down legs up when I caught up with him!

Mick Hill was another trickster. He drove the D6 Bulldozer. When we were planting the back of Government Hill, old Herbie Welsh, the truck driver managed to get the old K Bedford (numbered and known as 1140) stuck. Mick pushed him out, but kept putting the blade of the dozer under the towball and lifting the rear wheels off the ground. And stopping and going - Herbie's teeth clenched his pipe with determination and rocked with the motion thinking it was his efforts that made the truck go! Micks eyes were glistening and he grinned like Popeye as he too smoked a pipe!

Good nature and camaraderie was always apparent at this time and it made everyone's lot a happier one. Oh as I am on this, the other trick and this is not the first this has happened but - one of the guys needed to do his business, and you guessed it, another took a shovel and collected it as he passed it (I'm talking poo, motions or whatever you want to call it - I have tried not to say the sh word). So the guy thinking he had done a lot, looked back to see he had done nothing! The roars of laughter told him what had happened.