Making productive space from sawmill waste: timber production and reclamation at Kohukohu, Northland, New Zealand (1879-1912)

Abstract

This paper explores local-scale landscape change as a consequence of waste disposal practices employed by the New Zealand (NZ) timber industry during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and considers whether there was concern about effects of these practices on receiving environments. The research focuses on Kohukohu, Northland, where a steam-powered sawmill operated between 1879 and 1912. Sawn waste was used to reclaim six acres (2.43 ha) of land at Kohukohu, which converted waste material into something useful (lining and fill) and improved the working conditions of the mill by creating flat land. Local concern about disposal of sawn waste by reclamation appears limited until the early 1900s, when anxiety about the negative effect of sawdust on the harbour increased. Such local scale modifications occurred elsewhere in the kauri district and are a (sometimes forgotten) legacy of industrialised timber production in NZ.