Historic sawmill runs out of steam

Brothers Dave (left) and Mike Collins with an early 1900s Tangye horizontal steam engine, part of the steam sawmill they built at Kerikeri 32 years ago. Photo / Peter de Graaf

An era has ended in Kerikeri with the final log sawn at the last steam-driven sawmill in New Zealand.

The last log was sawn on Monday by Mike and Dave Collins, the brothers who built the mill on Kerikeri Inlet Rd and cut the first log in 1983.

The mill will keep running until Friday when its steam whistle - part of the Kerikeri soundscape for more than 30 years - will sound for the last time.

Nine staff, one of whom has worked at the mill for 18 years, will lose their jobs. The brothers' idea was to use the mill's waste wood to fuel the steam furnace and generate power, making it virtually self-sufficient.

It also meant Mike could combine a business with his love of all things steam. The mill has five steam engines built between the early 1900s and 1955. Three are in use every day.

The machinery was cobbled together by the brothers from other sawmills, a steam tugboat and even a hospital.

An economic downturn in the 1980s saw Mike return to orcharding, leaving Dave and his wife Maree to keep the mill running. They sold it eight years ago to Max Birt Sawmills, which has two other mills in the Waikato, but remained closely involved.

Owner Max Birt upgraded the mill and doubled production in a bid to make it viable but abandoned plans to convert it to electricity.

Ironically his efforts to make the mill economic may have hastened its demise. The more he processed, the more waste he had to get rid of.

The furnace uses only about 20 per cent of the waste bark and wood so the rest was burnt in a pit on site, sparking complaints from neighbours and eventually council action.

Despite various attempts he was unable to find an economic way of disposing of the waste.

Mr Birt said it was New Zealand's last commercial steam-driven sawmill and probably the last steam-powered industrial plant of any type. The mill and land will be put on the market.

- See Saturday's Advocate for the full story of New Zealand's last steam sawmill.