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Story: Kauri gum and gum digging

Kauri gum diggers’ camp

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Kauri gum diggers’ camp

This camp is on a Northland forest edge, around 1910. The huts are a timber-framed lean-to and an A-frame structure roofed with nīkau fronds. The tools are different from those used to find gum on the mānuka scrublands. Many of the men are holding grubbers, used to search around the base and roots of large kauri trees.

Using this item

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

Reference: 1/1-006374; G

by Arthur James Northwood

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

Carl Walrond, Kauri gum and gum digging – The gum diggers, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/12958/kauri-gum-diggers-camp (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Carl Walrond, published 1 March 2009.