February 10, 2013

Upper Pohangina Valley farmscape

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Farmscape near Piripiri in the upper Pohangina Valley East Road

Farmscape near Piripiri in the upper Pohangina Valley. Photo: C. Knight

On the same trip on which we met the “horse for sale” (see previous post), we also passed through the Pohangina Valley, travelling from north to south.

Like Apiti, the upper Pohangina Valley is characterised by small settlements which are often more evident on the map than they are in reality: places such as Utuwai, Umutoi and Komako. Looking at early survey plans, it appears that the vision for these places was somewhat more substantial than what eventuated. (more…)

 

February 6, 2013

Horse anyone? – Exploring the upper limits of the Manawatu

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Apiti horse

It was actually the Apiti shack, rather than the horse, for sale. Judging from the state of both the shack and this sign itself, it had been for sale for quite a while. (The horse proved very congenial, so would not have made a bad purchase in itself). Photo: C. Knight

I know Apiti as the small settlement located at the upper limit of the Ahuaturanga (or Upper Manawatu) block, purchased from its Rangitane owners by the government in 1864.

While I had read about it, until today, I had never been to Apiti [click here to view location]. (more…)

 

January 18, 2013

Ashhurst wetland: the restoration of the wetland that wasn’t

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Wetlands below Ashhurst Domain, on a site that was once the course of the Pohangina River

Wetlands below Ashhurst Domain, on a site that was once the course of the Pohangina River

Though we often hear about wetland restoration projects, the Ashhurst wetland, on the river flats below the Ashhurst Domain [click here to view location] is not a case of “restoration” in the normal sense. (more…)

 

January 17, 2013

Dear’s Bush – a rare relic of Manawatu swamp forest

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George Dear in Dear's Bush

George Dear standing on the “bridge” across Maire stream, which runs through one block of the bush preserved by his grandfather in the 1870s.

A few days ago, I had the privilege of visiting a piece of remnant forest on the plains between Manawatu and Rangitikei Rivers [click here to view location]. The bush was set aside by George Dear, an immigrant from Bedfordshire, England, who became one of the first settlers in the Rongotea district. (more…)

 

December 24, 2012

“Down to the sea in slips”: soil erosion in New Zealand

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Manawatu Gorge landslide 2010

A landslide in Manawatu Gorge, 2010

Reading a recently published environmental studies text book the other day (New Environmentalism, by Chris de Freitas and Martin Perry), I was reminded of a rather alarming statistic:

New Zealand loses between 200 and 300 million tonnes of soil to the oceans every year. (more…)

 

November 11, 2012

Swamp fires of the Manawatu

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At first, “swamp fires” might seem like an oxymoron, and I was certainly surprised to read about them when I read Suspended Access, the history of the Opiki toll bridge. In this history, Molly Akers relates how, as the floodplains around the lower Manawatu River were drained to stimulate flax growth for milling, peat fires in the swamp became a continual menace. What makes peat fires unusual, in comparison to forest or scrub fires, is that they burn underground. (more…)

 

October 20, 2012

Creating a pastoral world through fire: bush burning in the Manawatu

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How did the Manawatu transform from a densely forested environment in 1870 to a pastoral landscape by the turn of the century?

The answer, which will be explored in a lunchtime talk on 8th November, as part of the 2012 Manawatu Local History Week, is “fire”. (more…)

 

September 16, 2012

Could blackberry jam have become NZ’s biggest export?

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No, not really – but this is what one Manawatu farmer suggested might happen if the plant was allowed to spread any further through the district and the country.

So serious was the issue by the 1920s, that noxious weeds (including gorse and blackberry) were a hot topic at a Farmers Union Conference in Feilding in 1928.  As one concerned delegate somewhat facetiously put it: “Unless the blackberry pest is taken in hand seriously by the Government the main exports from New Zealand in years to come will be blackberry jam and farmers”.

(more…)

 

July 14, 2012

Did European settlers loathe the forest? (Part 2)

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This post follows on from the previous post Did European settlers loathe the forest? While I am largely satisfied with the idea that European settlers destroyed the forest driven by the need to make productive use of the land, rather than any deep-seated loathing of it or what it represented, this still does not explain the extent to which forest – lowland forest especially – was destroyed. It was, by and large, decimated. (more…)

 

May 25, 2012

Bush adventures in Hokowhitu

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In her 1954 reminiscences of pioneering life in the Manawatu town of Palmerston North, Charlotte Warburton writes about childhood adventures in the bush in the Hokowhitu area, adjoining the Manawatu River.

I grew up in Hokowhitu in the 1970s, not far from the River, but by then there was little sign that anything but the exotic had ever thrived there. (more…)

 

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