Halls Arboretum

Halls Arboretum

Sunday, 20 April 2025

As part of Echo Walking Festival and National Archaeology Week, local archaeologist Dave Wilton, of The Treasury, will guide a walk around the historic locations of Hall’s Arboretum (established 1870s) and Parawai Mission Station (established 1837).

Halls Arboretum is an important NZ scientific site, as it was a key reference site in the 1913 Royal Commission on Forestry, which drove NZ forestry policy through to the present day. ‘These trees, planted by Mr Hall, serve perhaps as no others in New Zealand to illustrate the rate of growth of some exotic trees in comparison with our own native forest trees’ (Royal Commission on Forestry Report, 1913).

We will also visit a couple of Mission Station sites close to the arboretum.

Photo: Brunton Crescent entrance to Halls Arboretum.