This tree is located at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, New Zealand's pre-eminent historic site. It was here on February 6th, 1840, that the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between Maori and the British Crown. The Treaty Grounds are part of the 506 hectare (1000 acre) Waitangi National Trust estate, which was gifted to the nation by Lord and Lady Bledisloe in 1932.

The tree is documented to have been one of a box of seedlings collected from Norfolk Island and brought to New Zealand in 1836 by John Edgerley, gardener and botanist to Lieutenant Thomas McDonnell, R.N. (Retired). It is generally accepted that this was the first introduction of this species to New Zealand.

The history of how two seedlings arrived at Waitangi is recorded by Robert Mair (1830-1920). ‘In 1836 my mother (Elizabeth, wife of Gilbert Mair) had a box of Norfolk pines given her by Captain Thomas McDonnell of Hokianga. She gave two to James Busby, the then British Resident, and planted one at our home, Wahapu, Bay of Islands.’ Other seedlings from the box were planted at a number of mission stations in the North and one at McDonnell's residence at Horeke, with some being destroyed by Elizabeth Mair's young daughter.

This tree is the most prominently situated with the second tree possibly being the one growing in the gully south of the Treaty House. The plaque at the base of the tree states: Planted by AGNES WIFE OF JAMES BUSBY 1836. A puzzling statement is displayed inside the Treaty House, ‘.....some of the Busby’s trees still survive, the most spectacular a Norfolk pine, the only survivor of a row planted by Busby but felled in 1845 by Maori.’
Notes compiled by Cadwallader, B.G. Refs: Great Trees of New Zealand. S.W. Burstall & E.V. Sale 1984, New Zealand Forest Service, Forest Research Institute, Mensuration Report No.16 1971 (unpublished). Waitangi Treaty House historical notes.