After confiscation of the Tainui lands north of the Puniu River in 1864, the area of Koromatua was parcelled out to men who had been members of the militia. The area with Barrett Bush came into the hands of the Barrett family in the 1914. Fred Barrett took over the farm in the 1930s and married Gladys. He cherished the bush and when, in 1979, he decided to sell the farm, he looked for means to protect it from destruction by subsequent owners. He sold some 5 acres (nearly 3 ha) to the Department of Lands and Survey as a scenic reserve.
The land became part of the conservation estate in 1987 when the Department of Conservation was formed from amalgamation of the Lands and Survey Department, New Zealand Forest Service and Wildlife Division of the Department of Internal Affairs.
The land surrounding the bush was sold to different owners and suffered gradual decline from the periodic invasion of stock and all manner of weeds. In 1985 Bunny Mortimer and Mairi Jay began organising to restore the bush and Friends of Barrett Bush have met on the first Sunday of the month ever since, to weed, fence, plant and release.
Ecological values of the bush
Barrett Bush is divided into 2 quite different stands of native lowland forest vegetation. These are:
a)Kahikatea and matai-totara forest in the north, covering about 1ha, with a sub-canopy dominated by matai, totara, occasional kahikatea, lancewood, and white maire.
b)Kahikatea/matai with pokaka, comprising approx 1.6 ha, in the southern end. It includes rimu and matai, a sub-canopy of cabbage tree, pokaka, kahikatea and matai with a dense ground cover of ferns, mostly young tree ferns
From an ecology / biodiversity perspective Barrett Bush is important because it is representative of a jigsaw of forest types that developed as a consequence of changes to the landscape in response to the movement of the Waikato and Waipa rives across the Hamilton basin. Sucessive floods brought a build-up of silt mounds and terraces in some areas, and ponds in others. These micro-variations in topography and soil created a mosaic of wet and dry communities, from kahikatea, swamp maire, and pukatea in some areas to tawa and titoki in others. Because so much of the original vegetation of the Waikato basin has been cleared, the full range of these different forests is no longer be evident. Today, small remnants such as Whewells Bush, Yarndley’s Bush and Barrett Bush are like pieces of a jigsaw; each different from the others and all necessary for an accurate picture of what the whole was once like.
restoration
Restoration of the bush has involved 5 basic activities:
a)Land purchase: about 2ha has been added to the reserve, changing its shape from a ‘figure of eight’ to a bumpy oval. The more oval shape reduces the ratio of edge to interior and will give more protection to the mid sections of the reserve.
b)Fencing: we have maintained all existing fences and extended fencing round the new areas;
c)Weeding: strategic removal of weeds, mainly privet.
d)Replanting: Replanting has involved several hundred plants, all eco-sourced from the Hamilton region. Fraser High School horticulture students have had a major role in propagating and planting. Other sources of stock include Peter Morris of Matangi, Chris Miles of AgResearch and Eddy Webster of Collins Road.
e)Stock removal: in the early days a neighbouring farmer sheltered his calves in the bush, and another allowed the fences to deteriorate and his stock to wander. Our neighbours since have been strict about keeping stock out and it has made a difference.
