The Great Bluegum Mystery
The bluegum, the wheelbarrow and the verger

In the grounds of St Luke's Church in Greytown grows a beautiful and majestic tree which has been there since around 1853. It has a most interesting, amusing and shady history. In the early 1850's, Charles Rooking Carter who had a deep admiration for the Australian Bluegum tree, decided that he would like to plant several examples of the species on his property in the Wairarapa. In 1853 he sent to Sydney for a dozen two year old seedlings to be shipped to him in Wellington.

When the trees arrived Charles Carter asked a neighbour, Samuel Oates, to arrange transport of the trees from Wellington to the Wairarapa on his behalf. Sam agreed and decided to do the job by hand, purchasing a wooden wheelbarrow. Accompanied by a friend, Mr Fairweather, he set out to wheel the trees the sixty-two miles to the Wairarapa over the Rimutaka Range.

After a  rugged, dusty and tiring journey of several days the pair arrived at Greytown to the welcome sight of the "Rising Sun Hotel". Parking the wheelbarrow in the shade outside the hotel, the friends went inside for a couple of well-earned drinks. Another patron in the bar that day was the Verger of the nearby Anglican Church and Greytown's gardener. After quenching their thirst, the friends continued on the remaining seven miles of their journey, arriving at the Carter property late that afternoon.

On the following day, acting on the instructions of Mr Carter, Sam Oates began the job of planting the Gumtrees. Part-way through this exercise Sam paused to reflect on his work and realised that the few trees he had planted and those left in the wheelbarrow did not add up to the twelve he had started the journey with. Had some fallen un-noticed from the wheelbarrow? Had they been shortchanged in their order from Sydney? Concerned tho' he was, Mr Carter congratulated Sam on a job well done and looked forward to watching the gum trees flourish.

One day, some years later, Mr Carter was visiting Greytown and noticed a tall and impressive Bluegum growing in the grounds of St Luke's Church. Looking around the town he noticed another fine specimen in the grounds of a house in West Street. On enquiring he found out that the trees had been planted several years earlier by the Verger of St Luke's who was also the local gardener. A further example was found growing in the grounds of the Verger's cottage enabling Mr Carter to solve the great bluegum sapling mystery.

Fate decreed that the Gumtree in the Verger's property was to be a weak and sickly specimen which did not survive long while that at West Street, surviving 88 years and reaching a height of 148 feet, was cut down in 1939 in the interests of public safety. As if decreed, however, by some heavenly power, the tree in Saint Luke's Churchyard remains to this day a strong, fine specimen of this beautiful Australian native. It is now 150 years old.