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Barton's Bush, in Trentham Memorial Park, is the largest remaining area of lowland mixed podocarp/broadleaf forest in the Hutt Valley of New Zealand. Named after Richard Barton who settled in the area in 1841, it was his desire that this section of the native forest should remain whilst the city of Upper Hutt gradually took shape and land was cleared for farming and settling.
In 1841, Richard Barton purchased 40 hectares (100 acres) of land in the upper Hutt Valley. [1] He modeled his development of his estate on that of Trentham in England, where he had been a supervisor of the estate. This meant part of the land was cleared for farming and settlement while some of it was left as natural bush land. Over time, Barton and his wife acquired more land so that eventually his estate extended from Quinns Post to Silverstream to the west of the Main Road and on both sides of the Hutt River.
By 1924, Barton's descendants had started to clear the remaining native bush on the estate. Attempts were made to protect the remaining bush as a public reserve through discussions with the family as well as representation to the Minister of Lands. However, it was only in 1950 that £26,000 (£2,020,000 in 2012 values [2] ) were able to be raised to purchase the bush area. Of the money raised, £13,000 came from a War Memorial subsidy while the remainder was one third public subscription and one third each from the Upper Hutt Borough and Hutt County Councils.
While acquisition of Barton's Bush was intended to preserve the bush remnant as an indication of what the forest had been like before the Europeans came to New Zealand, it was far from pristine. During the 1940s the area had been logged. Based on the remaining stumps, over 100 tōtara had been felled, while the bush was also infested with the exotic pest plants Old Mans Beard (Clematis Vitalba) and Wandering Jew (Tradescantia Fluminensis), both detrimental to the forest. Since 1980 a control programme has actively removed these pest plants and supplementary plantings have encouraged native flora development.
In recent years, the bush tracks have been gravelled and lightly fenced to provide clear walking paths while protecting the forest and discouraging people and animals from wandering off the formed tracks and inadvertently damaging the natural undergrowth.
More than 100 different species of native plants live in Barton's Bush. [3] Most of the mature canopy trees are tawa, with some tōtara, mataī and kahikatea canopy trees also present. [4] There is also a broad range of native undercanopy trees and other undergrowth plants. While it has been subject to some human modification, Barton's Bush still gives a good indication of the sort of lowland forest that the European settlers encountered when they first moved into the Hutt Valley.
The Hutt Valley is the large area of fairly flat land in the Hutt River valley in the Wellington region of New Zealand. Like the river that flows through it, it takes its name from Sir William Hutt, a director of the New Zealand Company in early colonial New Zealand.
Upper Hutt is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand and one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington metropolitan area.
Trentham is the most populous suburb of Upper Hutt, a city in the Wellington region of New Zealand. The suburb is located in a widening of the Hutt Valley, five kilometres to the southwest of the Upper Hutt city centre.
Richard Barton was the first European resident of Trentham, Upper Hutt, in New Zealand. He was born in Newport, Isle of Wight, England.
The Royal Wellington Golf Club, founded in 1895, is one of New Zealand's most beautiful and historic golf courses. The Golf Club is situated in Heretaunga, Upper Hutt, just north of Wellington and alongside the Hutt River between Silverstream and Trentham.
Otari-Wilton's Bush is a native botanic garden and forest reserve located in Wilton in Wellington, New Zealand. It is the only public botanic garden that is dedicated solely to the native plants of New Zealand.
Birchville is a suburb of Upper Hutt, New Zealand in the North Island. Its centre lies at the entrance to the Akatarawa Valley, in the north of the city, near confluence of the Akatarawa Stream with the Hutt River. It is about a 5 km (10-minute) drive north from the centre of Upper Hutt. The Birchville community is spread out along both banks of the Hutt River in a long fairly narrow valley.
Wallaceville is a suburb of Upper Hutt. It is named after John Howard Wallace, an early New Zealand settler, council politician, businessman and author of one of the first published histories of New Zealand.
Belmont Regional Park is a regional park located between Lower Hutt and Porirua, in the Wellington Region at the southern end of New Zealand's North Island. It is administered by Wellington Regional Council.
Kaitoke Regional Park is regional park located at Kaitoke, northeast of Upper Hutt, in the Wellington Region of New Zealand's southern North Island. It is administered by Wellington Regional Council, alongside the adjacent regional park of Hutt Water Collection Area.
Trentham Racecourse is the main thoroughbred horse racecourse for the Wellington city area in New Zealand. It is located in the suburb of Trentham in Upper Hutt, next to Trentham Military Camp.
Pureora Forest Park is a 760-square-kilometre (290 sq mi) protected area in the North Island of New Zealand. Within its rich rainforest are an abundance of 1,000-year-old podocarp trees. It is "recognised as one of the finest rain forests in the world". Established in 1978, after a series of protests and tree sittings, the park is one of the largest intact tracts of native forest in the North Island and has high conservation value due to the variety of plant life and animal habitats. New Zealand's largest totara tree is located nearby on private land.
Trentham Memorial Park is a large park and a major sport and recreation ground in Trentham, a suburb of Upper Hutt, in the Wellington region of New Zealand.
St John's Anglican Church in Trentham, Upper Hutt is one of the oldest surviving Anglican churches in the Wellington region of New Zealand.
The May Morn Estates Tramway was a bush tramway at Mangaroa, which crossed the Hutt River at Te Mārua near Upper Hutt on New Zealand's North Island. The company was incorporated in 1912 and operated their saw mill at least from 1914 to 1915.
Akatarawa Forest is a regional park in the Upper Hutt within the Wellington Region at the southern tip of the North Island of New Zealand. It encompasses 15,000 hectares of native and plantation forest. It includes the headwaters of the Maungakotukutuku Steam, Akatarawa River West and the Whakatikei River.
Coromandel Forest Park is a protected area and conservation park administered by the Department of Conservation, covering 71,899 hectares of the Coromandel Peninsula, in the Thames Coromandel District of the Waikato Region.
Pakuratahi Forest is a regional park located in Upper Hutt in the Wellington Region at the southern end of New Zealand's North Island. It is administered by Wellington Regional Council.
Wainuiomata Water Collection Area is a regional park located near Wainuiomata, Lower Hutt in the Wellington Region at the southern end of New Zealand's North Island. It is administered by Wellington Regional Council, for exclusive use by Wellington Water as a water catchment reserve. The park covers the catchments of the Wainuiomata River and the Ōrongorongo River. It adjoins Remutaka Forest Park and Wainuiomata Recreation Area.
Tāwharanui Regional Park is a regional park on the Tāwharanui Peninsula in the Auckland Region of New Zealand's North Island. It is located in Rodney, east of Warkworth and north of Auckland.
Coordinates: 41°07′51″S175°01′45″E / 41.130800°S 175.029148°E