Waiau District History - Timber Mills around Tūātapere in 1949

Shared by
Central & Western Murihiku Southland Archive

Waiau District History - Timber Mills around Tūātapere in 1949 IMAGES: Photo 1 - Scan of a page out of Elsie Poole's (later Herrick's) school book Photo 2 - Scan of the cover of Elsie Poole's school book for Social Studies Photo 3 - Elsie Herrick (née Poole) before she passed away 31 Dec 2022 While at Waiau District High School, at Form III or 3 (appears to be crossed out and written in as '14 years') in her Social Studies classes during 1949, local girl Elsie Poole (who later married and became Elsie Herrick), did some research and writing about the land and the uses of it, around her. We were recently donated one of her schoolbooks, and it has some very useful information in it on our district history regarding sawmills. In the entry shown here, she records names and distances of the timber mills around the district, with there being 18 of them at this time, pointing to the fact of Tūātapere being well and truly a timber town in its earlier years. We have quoted one section that has particular relevance, as below: "Timber Mills in Tūātapere District - and their distance from Tūātapere: Amalgamated Box Factory 1/2 mile (800m) Birch and Co Box Factory 7 miles (11.2km) Birch and Company 15 miles (24 km) Central Timber Company 1/2 mile (800m) Evans and Company 12 miles (19.3km) Groveburn 7 miles (11.2) Guthrie Bros 5 miles (8km) Hibbs and Company 5 miles (8km) Horner's 14 miles (22.5km) Lindsay and Dixon 20 miles (32.2km) McIntyre and Company 12 miles (19.3km) McIntyre's Box Factory 1/2 mile (800m) Sheriff and Company 7 miles (11.2km) Templeton and Brown 9 miles (14.5km) Tūātapere Sawmilling Company 10 miles (16km) Waiau Sawmilling Company 9 miles (14.5km) Williams 2 miles (3.2km) WJ Kenneally 32 miles (51.5km)" NOTE: Allen Templeton's "Southwest Sawmills" book, that we have in our CWA Community & Heritage Hub library, has the history of each of these mills from the above list, if you wish to come and look at them more. If you are unable to visit us, please make contact and we can arrange to do research for you or to get historical sawmilling material that you require. Hopefully this entry will be added to as more information comes to hand. If you or anyone you know has any more information or photos to share or accounts of any of the local or district timber mills and owners or workers during the years, please do share this with us in the comments section. We would also like to know more about Elsie Herrick as well if you know of her. You can help by making a comment in the space provided under the image page. Or you can make contact with us as per the CWA archive front page. Note: these entries are compiled with information provided by donors with the records, from locally reported news, from national and occasionally international reports in publications, from personal records made by the people themselves - such as their electoral enrolments, wills, war records etc., also from government and council held records such as births, deaths and marriages or cemetery information, and lastly, from community memories, such as those passed on by friends, family and contemporaries. It is not always possible to verify memories from others, so please let us know if you believe we have any incorrect information. If you believe that any public or personal record information quoted is wrong, if you can provide proof of any alternative fact to us in a document showing evidence of the correct details, that would be very helpful to us. Thank you.