Timber Pioneers - Brownlee and Baigent

William Brownlee (1828-1917) and Edward Baigent (1813-1892) were two of Marlborough/Nelson's most successful sawmillers. Generations of both families continued to work in the timber and forestry industries until the end of the twentieth century.

William Brownlee, Marlborough Historical Society Collections -Marlborough Museum. Alternative image
Click image to enlarge

When William Brownlee, his wife Christina and their family arrived in the Pelorus District in June 1864, they found the area timbered with dense, virgin native forest.¹

Brownlee's Mill, Havelock, The Nelson Provincial Museum, Tyree Studio Collection 178818/3
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Brownlee had a sawmilling background in Scotland and brought sawmilling machinery with him. He arrived in time to supply timber for the Marlborough gold rush and the Vogel public works boom.²

With initial cutting rights for more than 1000 acres, Brownlee was reputed to have made more than £7000 in the first two years. He had plenty of capital for further expansion -and expand he did.³ Between 1864 and 1915, Brownlee and Co. shipped 189 million feet of timber out of the region.  Brownlee milled the Mahakipawa, Kaituna, Nydia Bay and Kaiuma Bay forests, establishing himself as the ‘king of sawmillers'.⁴  By the 1880s, 75 men were employed by Brownlee. He was a good employer and many men worked at his Blackball mill for the 30 years of its operation.⁵

Developments in bush tramway technology, later used nationwide, were attributed to Brownlee, with his tramway being described as ‘a marvel of sawmill engineering."⁶  At its peak, the Brownlee empire included three sawmills, 28 miles of tramline, four locomotives and a fleet of coastal traders. However, by 1915, the Marlborough forests were worked out and Brownlee and Co. relocated to the West Coast, where the company remained until 1987.⁷

Baigent's Timber Yard, The Nelson Provincial Museum, Tyree Studio Collection, 115213/3
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Edward Baigent, who arrived in Nelson in May 1842 with his wife Mary Ann and their children, also had a sawmilling background. He too brought a variety of saws and tools, with the intention of setting up a sawmill.⁸  In 1844, Baigent built a water-race from the Wai-iti River and erected a water-wheel which he used to power a flourmill. A year later he added a water-powered sawmill, which operated during the day, while the flour milling was done at night.⁹

The need for money to develop his sawmill saw Baigent working for the New Zealand Company in contract labour gangs. He worked on improvements to the sawmill at night, taking two years to get it working to full capacity. By 1850 he was employing eight men.¹⁰

Horse team hauling logs about 1904. Marlborough Historical Society Collections - Marlborough Museum Click image to enlarge

Baigent provided timber for the building of Nelson's first cathedral in 1850/51.  It took 10 bullock teams to transport the timber from Wakefield to Nelson.¹¹  In 1869 Baigent opened his first Nelson timber yard on the corner of Collingwood and Hardy Streets. A year later he moved to Waimea (Rutherford) Street, where the business remained for more than 100 years.¹²

The economic depression of the 1880s and 90s seriously affected the Nelson timber trade, however the family firm of H. Baigent and Sons continued to grow through the 20^th century. They developed and owned substantial forestry holdings, timber yards and the Eve's Valley mill, now owned by Carter Holt Harvey.¹³

Many early pioneers made their living from cutting down and milling native timbers, and a review of forest policy in 1925 indicated the indigenous timber resource would be exhausted by 1965-70. Nationwide state plantings of exotic forests were increased to 300,000 acres between 1925 and 1935.¹⁴

Pulling a stump Marlborough Historical Society Collections -
Marlborough Museum            Click image to enlarge

By the end of 1939, Golden Downs, Nelson's state-owned forest, covered 19,250 acres. Production forest plantings, 88% of which were pinus radiata, covered a total of 120,000 hectares in Marlborough/Nelson by 1992.¹⁵

²⁰⁰⁸

Additional Information

• For an alternative view of the Brownlees enterprise, see Nola Leov's story.
• William Ross Brownlee died 29/11/1917 aged 89. Buried Havelock (from the Blenheim death register/Marlborough Museum)
• Edward Baigent died 9/11/1892, aged 79.¹⁶
• Letters from Isaac Baigent of Windlesham Mills, 1853, and notes about the Baigent family, supplied by Philip Parker (2006) [PDF]

Updated: April 03, 2020

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