A Sad Reminder: The Old Dennistoun Bush Saw Pit

As impressive as the native forest is here in Blandswood, you can't help but imagine just how much more pristine it would have been before the settlers came and cleared so much of the forest.

Peel Forest was a busy saw-milling village from 1865 to 1908, the main timber being the huge Kahikatea and Totara that clad the hills. Both highly desired for building materials, the trees were cut and then dragged to saw pits by bullock teams.

Before the days of modern saw mills, trees were milled in saw-pits; the logs were placed on supports  whilst the men did length cuts along the pit. Today, these pits that once hummed with activity and sweat now lay silent amongst the trees that once fed the industry. It's like the prey has now become the hunter as the forest now gobbles up what once tried to tame it.

This old saw pit stands in Dennistoun Bush, alongside the sad remains of what was once a giant totara. The trunk remnant is impressively wide and gnarly, and time has seen it become hollow and moss clad, no doubt home to many a spider and weta. 

Given how tall some trees are in the forest, those that possess nowhere near the girth of this trunk, it's a sad reminder of just how majestic Peel Forest must have been before Charles Torlesse first set eyes upon it.