Members of the Macleay River Historical Society say the Upper Macleay area was believed to be home to the one of the largest ever cedar trees in the world.
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According to the society's journal published in November 1987, the tree grew on a property owned by Henry Sauer at Nulla Nulla.
The tree earned the name Sauer Cedar giant and was found in low scrubby flat, about nine kilometres from the homestead.
According to an article in the Macleay Argus, published in 1990, the tree was felled in 1882 and is recorded as having yielded a massive 240 cubic metres of timber.
"This figure did not include the timber in the high stump and some of the branches which were later used - one of the limbs yielding 14 metres square of timber," it was reported.
An article in the North Coast Magazine from 1983 also reported the tree had a girth of nine metres, three metres from the base.
"Bullock wagons took the cedar to Kempsey wharf and pieces were sent to England and the United States," it states.
In a letter to the Macleay Argus newspaper, Mr Irvine Davis wrote two pit saws had to be welded together to crosscut the tree into lengths which could be transported.
Irvine Davis was a descendant of Henry Davis, who (with his sons) felled the Sauer red tree at Nulla Nulla in 1882.
In his letter, Mr Davis outlined some of the challenges associated with felling the tree.
"After crosscutting in the main trunk off the tree into suitable lengths, it became necessary to bore holes in opposite sides of each of the very large logs for explosive charges to be inserted," he wrote.
"By this means, the logs were reduced to flitches and consequently easier to transport to the manually operated saw pits and then to Kempsey."
It's believed some of the tree was then put on display at the London Museum.
- Information courtesy of the Macleay River Historical Society
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