Platt's place

Forest and Bird, Issue 279, 1 February 1996, Page 9

Platt's place

Jacqui Barrington

MAVERICK NATIVE nurseryman Graeme Platt has always done things differently. On TV’s "Living Earth" he dangled from a helicopter harness, collecting cones from some of Northland’s giant kauri. The seed from these is now growing at an astonishing rate — the fastest weight for age ever recorded — on his new five-hectare property at Albany north of Auckland. But having devoted much of his working life to promoting, propagating and planting native trees, Platt was determined not to use any native timber in his new house. He was equally determined not to use any radiata pine. Instead he decided to make the dwelling a showcase for a wide variety of New Zealand farm-grown exotic timbers. "The idea that you can have one wood for everything is stupid," he says. "We have to rediscover the old ethic of growing specific timbers for

specific purposes." For the beams and studs he chose lawson cypress while the exterior weatherboards are macrocarpa — painted to prolong their life. The major interior feature timbers are various New Zealand-grown eucalypts plus more lawson cypress and macrocarpa, with some New Zealand-grown Californian redwood, and Japanese cedar or tsugi. His neighbouring workshed features New Zealand-grown American swamp cypress panelling, an extremely durable timber Platt believes would be excellent for exterior cladding. Platt — never one to mince his words — considers the New Zealand plantation forest industry suffers from a "monocultural, pine-blind fixation that is severely retarding timber development". He’s compiled a list of 100 timber trees which grow better here than in their native countries,

such as deodar cypress, Norfolk Island pine and other araucarias, and will be conducting extensive trials on them alongside some natives. The property will have its own coppicing woodlot to feed

the woodburner, plus a swamp garden with rushes to treat the septic tank effluent. The house will also feature recycled bricks from a number of former city landmarks.