Skip to main content

Story: Fire and agriculture

Burning the bush, Taranaki

Image
Burning the bush, Taranaki

William Strutt’s 1856 painting portrays the drama of burning New Zealand’s native bush. Men with torches are setting alight the felled understorey, while the fire is already leaping into the crowns of the trees left standing.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: E-453-f-008

by William Strutt

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.

All images & media in this story

How to cite this page

Robert Peden, Fire and agriculture – North Island farms: bush and fern, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/artwork/15211/burning-the-bush-taranaki (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Robert Peden, published 1 March 2009.