The loss of Dunedin’s oldest living resident

A mighty mataī has fallen in the forest of Tāne. In the early hours of February 19, the Old Mataī of Glenfalloch Gardens laid herself gently down onto the forest floor, ending a vigil of more than a thousand years. She was, in all likelihood, Dunedin’s oldest living resident — predating the city by centuries.

She bore her distinctions quietly: a New Zealand Notable Tree (OR/1338), a Dunedin Scheduled Tree (T907), tourist attraction in her own right. She was quiet the wonder for those who sought her out. Tucked into the side of a valley, half-hidden by the understory, her true immensity revealed itself only to those who drew close. They were never disappointed.

Perhaps two hundred years ago, a crack opened in her heartwood and she slowly became hollow — an affliction that, in a strange mercy, likely saved her from the carpenters and shipbuilders who felled her kin to build this city. She was tended with care and love for as long as we could reach her. In the end, she simply lay down on her own terms, as magnificent in falling as she was in standing.

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Of interest

She was a she – mataī (Prumnopitys taxifolia) are dioecious, meaning that they produce male and female trees. For more years than anyone can recall, she produced fruit, but without a male tree nearby, none of the fruit was viable – I don’t want to say that she was alone, but she truly was the last of her kind.

I doubt very much that she was more than a thousand years old (this estimate came from a Notable Tree website). The base of the tree was completely hollow, so tree-ring analysis wasn’t possible – I am quite comfortable that she predated European arrival, and was Dunedin’s oldest living resident.

I had the pleasure to work on her in 2004 and again in late 2025 (see post). There is something magical about being with a living thing that is so incredibly old – being in it, working on it – thinking about all of the things that have come and gone – it’s a strange feeling, wonderfully grounding, truly a privilege.  

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