Number 81 in Burstall's Great Trees of New Zealand [1] was a massively buttressed red beech in Victoria Forest Park near Reefton. Burstall described it as growing alongside Murray Creek, around 500 m above sea level, in an area of old gold workings that had claimed most of the original forest.

The description was not quite correct. The tree was actually located in the headwaters of Burke's creek, around 625 m above sea level, on the Inglewood Mine branch track, a few metres north of the intersection with the Murray Creek track - a former mine road, now a popular walking and biking track.

Only the stump remains, with the mostly hollow stem broken at around 5 m. The buttressing was indeed massive - a diameter measurement at the usual 1.4 m above grade would be more than 5 m across the buttresses. The stem diameter reported by Burstall of 1.8 m would be at the location of the break.

Reviewing historic aerial photography showed a new gap in the canopy at the location of the tree sometime between 2010 and 2014, indicating when it finally fell. A 2006 photograph of the standing tree, as part of a mountain biking trip report, is available at [2]

Smillie, 2026

References:
1. S.W. Burstall and E.V. Sale, Great Trees of New Zealand, 1984
2. https://www.mtbr.com/threads/reefton-tracks-south-island-new-zealand.161515/ (accessed Oct 2026)