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Kōrero: Soils and regional land use

Gum diggers

Image
Gum diggers

The arduous and desolate working conditions in the kauri gumfields of Northland is illustrated in this 1911 photograph of Austrian diggers with their gum spears, used to probe the soil for buried gum.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Alexander Turnbull Library, Northwood Collection (PA-Group-00027)

Reference: 1/1-004940; G

by Northwood Brothers

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.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Allan Gillingham, Soils and regional land use – Northland, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/photograph/17087/gum-diggers (accessed 24 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Allan Gillingham, i tāngia i te 1 March 2009.