The farm has been in the family of Ross for 5 generations since 1840's. They owned a little bit of the land that had lots of trees. But in order to expand the farm to its current size of 500 acres they needed to sell the wood. So they ordered and imported from UK the steam engine. After hauling the steam engine from the boat up to the top of the hill using horses they set about cutting the felled trees into quarter lengths uding the steam engine.
Then using water wheel (powered by a stream) they created big planks or building lumber from the round quarter lengths. The "cups" on the water wheel are made from kerosene cans cut in half
These thinner bits were then pulled across fields to the top of the bay using 4 trained cows. A two interdependent (as gravity pulls one down it pulls the empty one up) car hillside railway built for the task then allowed one car to carry the lumber down to a boat (they also had to build a littlw jetty) that then took the wood to christchurch for sale.
The stumps are what is left of the trees.
Pics to follow
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