Eastwoodhill is the national arboretum of New Zealand. It covers 131 hectares (1.31 km2) and is located 35 km northwest of Gisborne, in the hill country of Ngatapa. It was founded in 1910 by William Douglas Cook. Cook's life work would become the creation of a giant collection of Northern Hemisphere temperate climate zone trees in New Zealand - a dream that would eventually cost him all his money - buying and importing thousands of trees from New Zealand and British nurseries.
When his health deteriorated in the 1960s, he sold his property to H. B. (Bill) Williams, who established the Eastwoodhill Trust Board in 1975 as a charitable trust, donating the arboretum to the trust in order to safeguard it for future generations.
Of all the arboreta of the Southern Hemisphere, Eastwoodhill Arboretum is said to have the largest collection of trees of the temperate climate zone of the Northern Hemisphere[1]. It includes some 4000 different trees, shrubs and climbers, including 170 species currently on the IUCN world endangered species list[2].
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The history of Eastwoodhill Arboretum will remain permanently connected with the life of William Douglas Cook (1884 - 1967). Douglas Cook, Cookie to his close friends, was born October 28, 1884 at New Plymouth, New Zealand. In 1910 he established a farm of 250 hectares in the Ngatapa settlement, calling the property 'Eastwoodhill', after his mother's family home in Thornliebank near Glasgow[3]. He at once started planting trees, but also roses, flowers, shrubs and vegetables.
During the first World War, Cook volunteered to serve in the army. In France he lost the sight of his right eye and subsequently stayed in Scotland with his family to recover. He was inspired by the gardens and parks of England and also came in contact with Sir Arthur William Hill, who would later become director of Kew Gardens[4].
In 1918, back at Eastwoodhill, Douglas Cook started planting
thousands of Pinus radiata for wood production
and for fire-wood. He also planted Eucalyptus viminalis and
E. macarthurii. He also
started creating parkland with, amongst others, Platanus
orientalis, different kinds of Ulmus, Acer
pseudoplatanus and A. platanoides. In this year the
lombardy poplars were also planted
alongside 'Poplar Avenue' up the later Main Entrance Drive. In 1919
he ordered 1,996 trees and shrubs and in 1920 a total of 3,387, of
which some two and a half thousand trees and shrubs were intended
for the garden[5].
The plantings included 'Cabbage Tree Avenue' (restored in
2006).
Planting was interrupted then for journeys to England in 1922 and
1924 but in 1926 the garden was extended with thousands of tulips, hyacinths and peonies from The Netherlands[6].
In 1927 Bill Crooks started working at Eastwoodhill, eventually staying on for 47 years. He did most of the farming, so Cook had more time for his beloved trees. The planting of the 'parks' (parts of which are nowadays the arboretum) started around 1927. Around this time serious collecting of different tree species also began for Cook[7]. Through the years the number of plant specimen collected reached immense proportions, with about 5000 different taxa at the maximum point, at large costs[8].
Cook “continued to spend up large on plants in the 1930s, far more than the farm earned. In 1936, he spent £85 (about a working man's wages for half a year) at one New Plymouth nursery alone and, by the end of his life, he had spent on average £1000 annually on plants from overseas and New Zealand” [9].
While in the 1920s Cook could still fund expanding his property from his other income and funds, in his mid-fifties, he had to sell 925 acres (3.74 km2) of his farmland to get further money for planting new trees in the 'Circus' park[10]. At the end of his life, Douglas Cook had effectively invested all his money in his arboretum. In 1965 he had a heart attack. He never fully recovered from that, and died 27 April 1967[11].
Although Eastwoodhill in the 1960s was often praised for its important collection of plants, many people worried about the future of his unique park, especially after Cook got older and started having health problems. In 1965 Heathcote Beetham Williams (referred to as H. B. (Bill) Williams), an entrepreneur from Gisborne, bought the property off Cook with the intention to keep the collection in order, and to guarantee that everyone with interests in plants and trees will be able to visit the arboretum in the future.
In 1975 the "Eastwoodhill Trust Act" passed parliament and the Eastwoodhill Trust Board could be founded. Next, H. B. Williams donated Eastwoodhill to the Board. Williams agreed to the vesting of the property in a Board to be established under a private act, “in the belief that a body so constituted offers the best prospect for the maintenance and development of the arboretum”[12]. In 1994 the Act was slightly adapted.
The Trust Board currently has 6 members who represent the following institutions[13]:
The objectives of the Trust Board are, according to the Act[14]:
Shortly after the establishment of the Eastwoodhill Trust a group of volunteers started to make contributions to the development and maintenance of the arboretum. From 1984 a garden group began caring for the Homestead Garden. In 1985 an organisation was formed to sustain visitors' interest, to build support, to gain donations and to provide information for visitors. The organisation is called the Friends of Eastwoodhill [15]. The 'Friends' publish a Newsletter 4 times a year[16].
The Douglas Cook Centre for Education was opened in 1992. An herbarium was established in 1994. In 1998 an accommodation wing was ready to cater for student groups, botanists and dendrologist and the plant loving public. In 2003 A new visitor centre was opened.
The arboretum is divided into a number of 'parks'. Each of these parks has its own style and name.
The flatter sections are in:
Steep hills and valley sections are found in:
Douglas Cook brought a total number of about 5,000 different species and cultivars of trees, shrubs and climbers to Eastwoodhill. A lot of them were imported from well known English nurseries like Hillier's, Veitch's and Slococks. He also bought many from nurseries in New Zealand like Duncan and Davies in New Plymouth and Harrison's in Palmerston North.
The main focus of the collection is still the trees, shrubs and climbers from the Northern Hemisphere, but nowadays Eastwoodhill has a large collection of native trees, too.
In the beginning of the 1970s the first catalogue of trees, shrubs and climbers were prepared by Bob Berry. It contained 3000 different taxa[17]. After the first version of 1972 the catalogue would remain the responsibility of Bob Berry until 1986[18]. Nowadays the catalogue is fully computerized, and the responsibility of the curator.
The most important genera at Eastwoodhill are:
Close to the entrance of the Arboretum the Homestead Garden is found. It dates from 1910, it covers 1 hectare (0.010 km2), and is maintained by volunteers since 1984[15]. “An ongoing project, the garden provides a fitting introduction to the arboretum and is full of interesting plantings aesthetically combined in a unique setting”[2].
Coordinates: 38°33′51″S 177°43′04″E / 38.564165°S 177.7178371°E
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