Wasley’s Bush, located in a relatively flat basin at the headwaters of the Nihotupu Stream contained the best kauri forest in the Waitakere ranges west of Auckland. Isolated from the mills in Henderson by the ridge of the ranges, and unable to drive logs over the Nihotupu falls to the south, the forest was not successfully logged until the mid-1890’s when Messers Mander and Bradley built a mill at Nihotupu, which became the site of the now disused auxiliary reservoir there. The milled timber was raised by a horse driven capstan to the ridge, and then taken by tram down through the hills to the timber yards in Henderson proper.

The trees in the bush were particularly large for the Auckland region. John Bethall described walking through the forest: “The finest kauri bush I have ever seen…trees [trunks] 60, 70 80 feet without branch or knot”[1].

A contemporary account describes the size of some of the trees: “In this one patch of bush which is known as Wasley's from the name of the old settler who owns it I have measured trees of 42 feet, 39 feet and 35 feet in girth but I am told that there is a tree in the same bush within a mile of these measuring 58 feet”[2].

During an official visit in 1895 to the site of mill, David Boyle, the 7th Earl of Glasgow and Governer of New Zealand at the time was so impressed by one particular tree (likely the 42 foot girth tree above), that he penned the following letter to the Auckland County Council [3]:

Sir,—l have lately been up to the ranges (near Nihotupu) to see the two magnificent kauri pines which your County Council was public-spirited enough to purchase, in order that they might not be destroyed in case the rest of the trees in that neighbourhood are felled. While there, I had some conversation with a gentleman who is about to make an offer for the timber, and he hopes to be successful. It has occurred to me that a still finer kauri than those you have bought which I saw standing about a third of a mile from the two I have alluded to might be preserved in the same way. It is a magnificent tree, and it seems a pity to let it be destroyed. I therefore take the liberty of writing to say that if the County Council or any other body would take action to preserve the tree I shall be happy to subscribe £3 towards the object, and shall send you a cheque for that amount with pleasure when you inform me that the tree is purchased. It is situated on the right of the bullock track, to the right of those trees as you go to them from Auckland, but further off at a distance I should think of about a third of a mile from the other two.”

That tree became known as the Glasgow Tree. Described as anywhere from 12 to 14 feet in diameter (3.7 to 4.3 m) or up to 52 feet (15.9 m) in girth in one photograph labeled as the tree[4], with a bole to 80 ft (24 m), it would be one of the largest, if not the largest ranked kauri tree today, with a wood volume in the stem approximately 280 cubic meters outside bark if the 14 ft diameter is used.

Although reserved around 1895, the tree did not last long past that time. A fire killed the tree in 1898, and rather the wood go to waste, it was felled for its timber (with the permission of the Earl, who had since returned to the U.K.). 14 ft diameter sections were taken for exhibition at Christchurch soon after. The same fate befell the mill, as it too was destroyed by fire in 1899. But its work was almost done, with the last of the trees in the area milled later that year [5].

Smillie, 2019

[1] J. G. E. Adams, Kauri a king among kings, 2nd Ed., 1986.
[2] E. W. Payton, Round About New Zealand being Notes from a Journal of Three Years Wandering in the Antipodes, 1888.
[3] New Zealand Herald, 18 May 1895, p. 4.
[4] Auckland Library, Local History Online, "Giant kauri tree, Nihotupu, 52' circumference," [Online]. Available: http://www.localhistoryonline.org.nz/gsdl/cgi-bin/PUI?a=d&d=waim-JTD-08F-05174&av=JTD-08F-05174_access.png. [Accessed January 2019].
[5] J. T. Diamond and B. W. Hayward, Waitakere Kauri, 1980.