Log driving dams

Huge wooden ‘driving’ dams are constructed to provide the immense water power required to drive the logs out of the mountains in artificial floods. All the timber for this dam is pit sawn on the site and is accurate to be watertight. This Kauaeranga Gorge main dam is even larger than that surviving today at Dancing Camp. It is 60m wide and 11m high. The second horizontal stringer from the top is a single length cut 40m long and 1m square.