Just because a massive kauri tree was unearthed while excavating for a geothermal plant doesn’t mean there aren’t woodworking needs that need to be met.
Sure, the rings of 47,000-year-old 8-foot-diameter (tiny for a kauri) 65-foot length of tree “contain a complete record of a near-reversal of the magnetic poles.” But the burl. The planks.
Talk about old growth.
Chris Turney from the University of New South Wales told Newsweek: “The precious thing is this huge, lonely tree grew for some 1,700 years across a remarkable period in our planet’s history when the Earth’s magnetic field flipped some 42,000 years ago, a period known as the Laschamp Excursion. Funded by the Australian Research Council, we’re undertaking detailed measurements of the radioactive form of carbon through the tree rings.”
A little digging shows the history of the kauri—Agathis australis for those of you brushing up on your Latin—to be somewhat along similar lines as the mighty pines of New England or, maybe closely aligned, Giant Sequoias and Redwoods.
They grew for eons and native peoples used them. Then people who knew how to build sailing ships and subdivisions came and said, Hey, Look at all those masts and siding growing there. Then cut a lot down.
Most seem to be protected now. They’re enormous. 50-foot-diameter trunks. 150-feet tall. Tree volumes off the charts.
Even in “death,” they are one of the longest living species on Planet Earth.
Fortititudine vincimus.
