Seventy Mile Bush
The Seventy Mile Bush was an inland forested area of New Zealand north of Wellington. It was used to settle Scandinavian assisted immigrants in the 1870s. On arrival they walked from the surrounding coastal settlements (Wellington, Foxton and Napier) to cut down to clear the land for farming.[1] The area encompasses what are now the towns of Norsewood, Dannevirke, Eketahuna and Pahiatua in the Tararua District.
References
- ↑ "Seventy Mile Bush". Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 2009-12-13.
Scandinavians attacked this massive forest from north and south. They walked from Napier and Wellington to the Scandinavian settlements, which they themselves had to create. Their routes are marked in red on the map. The clop-clop of axes and swishing of saws soon carried through the trees, and small grass clearings began to appear in the sea of forest.