The Keeper of the Trees 1937

Directed by Frank Hurley

This industrial short film provides a visual survey of the local timber industry, documenting the scale, infrastructure, and manufacturing pipelines of the pine plantations across New Zealand's North Island volcanic plateau. It follows the lifecycle of the forest from seedlings to maturity across 170,000 acres, and explores the commercial utilisation of wood pulp, detailing its transition into consumer goods like plastics, textiles, and structural materials for construction.