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Story: Workplace safety and accident compensation

Logging native bush

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Logging native bush

At Ōkahu Creek Bush near Kaitāia in Northland, two bushmen prepare to log a large kahikatea in 1909. They are standing on staging boards inserted into the trunk so they can reach the right point to start the saw cut. Logging by hand was extremely dangerous, and accidents and deaths were common.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: PAColl-0036-2-01

by G. H. Edwards

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Hazel Armstrong, Workplace safety and accident compensation – Working in the 19th century, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/23262/logging-native-bush (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Hazel Armstrong, published 2 March 2010.