Bushman Billy Mack takes a break while felling a giant kauri at Kauaeranga valley, Thames, in 1921. First, wedge-shaped ‘scarfs’ were cut into the trunk on the side the bushmen wanted the tree to fall. Then the trunk was sawn from the other side until the tree toppled.
Listen to former bushman Joe Julian describe the process of felling a large kauri.
Transcript
Announcer: How long would it take you to fell a tree like this back in those days?
Joe Julian: By the time you've scarfed him and put him on the ground, it'd take you - you'd fall about two of those a day, fall them and cut them up.
Announcer: That's good going.
Joe: Yes, that was in a 10-hour day of course. The usual gang in the kauri bush was about six men, three men on either side in big timber. You'd have two men, a left-hand and a right-hand axeman to scarf the tree, that is to put the gap in it. One would chop left-handed and the other would chop right-handed, and then you'd have two men putting in the side scores in on either sides, so the saw would fit through and they would be chucking in those in and if there's any staging to be built the the other two men would be cutting fork sticks and getting ready to put the staging in so you could get on and cross cut the tree down. Once you got the saw entered in - a lot of the big trees they use eight-and-10-foot saws - if you're using a 10 foot saw you usually use three men on either side. One man would be on the handle and then you had a tail rope on it with two men on the tail rope that pull the saw backwards and forwards and three men on either side, that'd be six to cut the tree down.
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Reference: 6545
Image: Kauri Museum, Tudor Collins Collection, 1993.224.440.3.I, by Tudor Collins
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