History
The Waipoua valley has a long history of Maori occupation, which continues to the present day. The tangata whenua (people of the land) are Te Roroa. Local Maori tradition, the records of early European explorers and archaeological evidence all show that the area in the past supported a large and thriving community, based on fishing, shellfish gathering, forest produce and a very sophisticated agriculture.
The arrival of European settlers drastically changed the face of Northland. Early sailors were quick to recognise the trunks of young kauri as being ideal for ships masts and spars. The settlers that followed soon discovered that kauri yielded sawn timber of unsurpassed quality. Kauri gum was found to be ideal for the manufacture of varnishes, and was obtained by digging, by fossicking in tree tops, or more drastically, by bleeding live trees. The result was massive exploitation of the kauri forests, which was accelerated by the demand for cleared farmland. The forests of Waipoua were at first saved from destruction by their remoteness. Waipoua itself was purchased by the Crown in 1876, but for decades there was debate and confusion as to what should be done with the forest.
Public pressure for total protection of the forest increased after the turn of the century. Logging of kauri for wartime boat building supplies in the 1940s finally sparked off a campaign that resulted in the creation of the 9,105 hectare Waipoua Sanctuary in 1952. Protective measures over other kauri forests gradually increased until 1987 when all remaining Crown kauri forests came under the protection of the Department of Conservation.