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Story: Fire and agriculture

Remains of forest

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Remains of forest

This is the littered landscape after an initial burn at Rip Station, Tapuwaeroa Valley, in the 1890s. The dried understorey has burned away, leaving felled logs and standing trees. The station owner would then have spread grass seed on the ash. It would take many fires over many years to clear the debris.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Frederick Ashby Hargreaves Collection (PAColl-3047)

Reference: PAColl-3047-1-01

by Frederick Ashby Hargreaves

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

Robert Peden, Fire and agriculture – North Island farms: bush and fern, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/15215/remains-of-forest (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Robert Peden, published 1 March 2009.