Zusammenfassung: | Logging of kauri timber from the northern regions of New Zealand (NZ) in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries played a major part in the development of the colony and, later, fledgling nation. Kauri timber also provided a very early source of export income. Mature kauri trees were of massive size and their growing locations in remote, rugged, bush-covered terrain meant that innovative transportation methods had to be adopted to harvest them. One such method was a system of driving dams, constructed within a river catchment, and tripped in a synchronized fashion when full (of logs and water). This study utilized GIS technology to develop a volumetric model of the driving dam system in the Kauaeranga Valley, which provides insights into how the system worked (particularly, its efficiency) and facilitated a comparison with other early systems of transporting logs (particularly tramways).
|