Sir Truby King track moves closer
New Zealand’s famous health reformer Sir Truby King, who began Plunket for under 5s in 1907, may soon have a track named after him in the Catlins.
Frederic Truby King, also known as Dr Truby King, had strong connections with the bush community Tahakopa from 1893 to 1929 when he and his wife Bella took a holiday, and fell in love with the untamed environment. This was just when the sawmilling boom began.
Tahakopa couple Don and Eleanor Sinclair, and Balclutha man Russell Harris, of the tiny bush settlement’s Our Hut Heritage Hub Sir Truby King Bridge Track sub-committee, had long been in discussion about ways to mark King’s association with the Catlins, and the lasting legacy of his decades as a bush pioneer.
They are in the process of establishing the commemorative 480-metre track, with the final route subject to the Clutha District Council granting an easement across private land, and fundraising.
The doctor, famous for his work at Seacliff Lunatic Asylum, which served both Otago and Southland patients, became a farmer. He was the first in New Zealand to use the herringbonedesigned milking shed at Tahakopa, and a timber miller (he had the most advanced mill in the country at the time), and later a goldminer.
He established Lauriston farm near Tahakopa in 1911. The Catlins was a long, rugged journey from Seacliff near Dunedin for he and his patients who worked the farm.
King also built a bridge to accommodate a railway extension to link his timber mill to the outside world, which still stands today, and will be a centrepiece of the track.
‘‘This bridge is now the only physical construction of Sir Truby King’s work that is left here today in the Tahakopa Valley. That is really showing some of his work of this great New Zealand pioneer,’’ Don Sinclair said.
The committee was keen to tiein the track with films about King and the district shown at Our Hut, which was established as a heritage film centre about three years ago.
Landowner David Scobie had given his permission for the track, which runs up the Tahakopa River, to cut across a corner of his property where it joined Tahakopa Valley Rd.
The matter was before the council with a decision expected to be reached this month.
Heritage New Zealand proposed to list the structure as a category one bridge, which was ‘‘pretty special’’ for Tahakopa, Sinclair said.
The proposed track up the Tahakopa River had a native tree canopy and was a habitat for the rare New Zealand short-tailed bat.