In 1930, a new-found wonder filled the newspapers as they wrote about the benefits of tung oil. Tung trees originated from China and the oil from their nuts became the ‘lifeblood’ of the paint and varnish industries. Later discoveries showed...... Read More

Building a house 150 years ago was simple. Settlers chose the best site on their property and either erected their own dwelling or hired an expert to do it. In 1865, the Rev Edwin Stanley Brookes arrived in New Zealand with his family, staying temporarily...... Read More

Driving down country roads, we often see random clumps of arum lilies and, in summer, fence lines covered with the lovely old pink rose, Dorothy Perkins. These flowers often mark the site of a pioneer’s homestead. When settlers arrived, their priorities...... Read More

Biddy Orr adored her grandmother, Elizabeth Karl. When Biddy was aged four-and-a-half she was brought north from the Waikato for Christmas and met her Puhoi family, including her great grandmother, Mary Remiger, who had emigrated from Bohemia as a child...... Read More

Early settlers began arriving at Mangawhai in the late 1850s. There were no roads, so it was a matter of getting a passage on a coastal cutter or schooner, which took them to a landing site along the Mangawhai River. Passengers were then directed into...... Read More

Among museum archives is a small notebook with the following entry: Joseph Isherwood Buckton and his Wife & 3 children left home May the 26th 1862 – Wortley St Leeds, started from the Wellington Station, Leeds at 10 o’clock at night and arrived...... Read More

A visitor to Warkworth in 1919 was so captivated by the beauty of the flowering kowhai trees, on the land between Matakana Road and the State Highway, that he wrote to the Warkworth Town Board and suggested that the land be purchased for a public reserve....... Read More

In May 1910, Mr Henry Binsted was appointed headmaster of Puhoi Public School. He immediately became involved in all aspects of community life, as well as achieving unparalleled results with the children’s education and behaviour. He became secretary...... Read More

Blacksmith and wheelwright Joseph Treadwell, his wife Elizabeth and two sons, Joseph Jnr and Walter, sailed to New Zealand aboard the clipper ship, Invererne, and arrived in Auckland in January 1875.  Also on Invererne were Elizabeth’s brother,...... Read More

An inkwell and pieces of broken slate, brought to the surface by a plough, confirm that an early school once stood on the headland inside Bradley Point near Cowan Bay, on the Mahurangi River. Open from 1858-62, the school is recognised by historians as...... Read More