A South Canterbury sculptor has saved and resurrected an iconic piece of Timaru history.
Steve Molloy created a large sculpture from offcut wood belonging to the famous Champagne Tree.
On March 31, 2022 it was controversially felled to make way for a new subdivision.
The tree, which was more than 150-years-old, was first planted in about 1870 but was replanted at Beverley, Wai-iti Rd, in 1873.
The tree was the pride of one of the first European women to settle in South Canterbury, Elizabeth Rhodes.
After the death of her husband George, she purchased Linwood House (which stood behind the present council chambers) and in 1867 married lawyer Arthur Perry.
In 1873 they purchased Beverley, a large house with 8ha of land.
Wanting to add to the impressive garden she decided to move one of her trees from Linwood, a young, well-grown Wellingtonia gigantea she had nurtured from a seed her late husband had gifted her.
Captain A.W. Wright of Craighead did not think the tree would survive the journey to its new location, so bet a case of champagne it would not survive.
The tree survived and became known as the Champagne Tree.
The 32m tall tree had also been the home of Timaru’s Christmas star Since 2003.
He said he found out about the offcuts after seeing a large table at Jmac Joinery which had been crafted from the famous tree.
"I was looking at the grain and thought ‘I'd love to be able to do something with some of that wood’ so I asked Spongy [Jmac Joinery owner] if there was any of it left and he told me there were some smaller offcuts in a paddock.
"I went out to have a look and under a tree I found them.
"I found a piece that just kept drawing me to it.
"Spongy turned up and I said, ‘I'd really like to take this piece’, and he says, ‘yeah, that's the very tip of the tree’.
He said almost immediately after beginning work the sculpture revealed its shape.
"I peeled as much as I could off it to see what I was going to do, and once I got into it I could see a female torso.
"I couldn't escape that, and I've never done a female torso or a feminine form before.
"The leaf forms that surround her, is like the earth is holding her up, and she's emerging from the earth.
"At the bottom of the sculpture is the chain I found inside the trunk that used to hold up the star.
"When I pulled that out and looked at it, then cut the front off and I've seen that feminine form, it was almost like the female breaking the chains and living on."
It was huge to have been able to save a part of Timaru history, he said.
He said the form the sculpture took was very much in line with the story behind the tree.
"She took the seedling, stuck it in a wheelbarrow, got it transported to that property and a male figure said it wouldn't grow.
"She put it in the soil, it all came to fruition and it thrived.
"She won the case of the champagne and it became an iconic story.
"If she had listened to the masculine in that tree, this story would never have come out in this part of history.
"So this piece is almost like her in a way, that determination to come out and stick to her story."
Mr Molloy said he would love for the sculpture to be placed somewhere people could view it.
"I've sent an email to council, I haven't heard back, but I would really love for it to go into a public space indoors where people could actually go and see it instead of it being in a private collection.
"That would be the ultimate goal.
"I hope it’ll stir a few emotions in the community."
