Fiordland’s Port Craig was the site of one of the most ambitious sawmilling enterprises in New Zealand history.

The area is relatively inaccessible and is largely covered in forest. Prior to 1840, it was sporadically visited by Maori attracted by the rich kai moana and the birdlife. In 1906, members of Ngai Tahu (Kai Tahu) who had been rendered landless by the Crown’s land purchases were granted a portion of the native forest under the South Island Landless Natives Act 1906 (SILNA). However, the land was not suitable for settlement and the grants became the subject of petitions to the Crown and have since been recognised by the Waitangi Tribunal as both inadequate and unjust.

In the early twentieth century, the forestry industry was vital to New Zealand’s development. Environmental historian Graeme Wynn writes that nineteenth century New Zealand as a ‘wooden world’ citizens’ ‘very existence rested upon the forest’s bounty.’ Shortly after the land passed into SILNA ownership, the government granted cutting rights over 1600 hectares of the area to the Marlborough Timber Company (MTC).

Headed by entrepreneur Dan Reese and mill boss John Craig, the MTC began clearing the bush, building a road, a wharf and breakwater in 1916. A sawmill was ordered from the Sumner Iron Works in the Pacific north-west. Convinced of the merits of importing American technology and milling on a grand scale, in 1921, Reese and Craig imported an American-built Lidgerwood log hauler, the largest and most sophisticated log hauler employed in New Zealand at the time. The main mill opened in September 1921, by which time the settlement was largely complete. By 1928, the operation included the huge mill and settlement, a railway-quality bush tramway, four towering timber viaducts, and had cut forest over an area of hundreds of hectares. Port Craig Sawmill and Settlement had a brief but stellar period of use, and by 1928 it had the largest output in the country.

Despite the massive outlay, the mill failed to make money. The Lidgerwood hauler broke down in 1926 and by 1928 the company was no longer able to function and the mill was closed. It revived briefly in 1930 but by the late 1930s the settlement had been largely demolished. Forest reclaimed much of area, and the tramway and viaducts slowly deteriorated.

In 1999, the land around the sawmill site became part of the Fiordland National Park. The Department of Conservation (DOC) upgraded the tramway and restored the Port Craig School House and installed interpretation at Port Craig. Remains of the wharf, mill and township of Port Craig, are still evident within the National Park, as is evidence of logging activity. Machinery and structural remains are still in place at the beach and, on the plateau above, various relics are visible. Further to the south-west, on land that remains in SILNA ownership, are the remains of the tramway and the four viaducts.

Port Craig Sawmill and Settlement is a place of special heritage significance. Once the site of one of the most ambitious sawmilling enterprises in New Zealand history, it is now one of New Zealand's most important saw milling heritage sites, with a representative collection of relics and structures that remain intact from the time the place salvaged.

(Source: New Zealand Heritage)