Timaru's tallest tree, was cut down in 2021
When you used to look to the west, you could see Timaru’s tallest tree, the 34m high Wellingtonia Gigantica. The tree had a lovely connection to Timaru’s past. George and Elizabeth Rhodes were one of Timaru’s early European settlers. When George died, Elizabeth remarried Arthur Perry and moved to Beverley Estate. This tree was shifted there in 1873 by wheel barrow, and a case of Champagne was bet over its survival. Rumour has it Edmund Hillary climbed it as a young man when he stayed with neighbours.
When George died in 1864 Elizabeth re married to Arthur Perry, she moved to a 30 bedroom home known famously as the Beverly. This house had a wonderful garden, a pond and a creek that ran to Caroline Bay. About this time George Knowles, descended from a long line of Devonshire gardeners and himself a gardener, came to Timaru. He soon became head gardener at Beverley, which position he held until 1898 when Beverley was sold after the death of Mr Perry. Mr and Mrs Knowles, known to the five Perry children as Mr and Mrs Poddles, lived in a cob cottage on the property at the back of the home of Mr Arthur Jones, Beverley Road. In this cottage the seven Knowles children were born.
Elizabeth and Arthur had one daughter called Nellie. She married her cousin, George Rhodes, of Christchurch.
A diphtheria outbreak caused the pond to be looked upon with suspicion and it was drained by order of the Borough Council.
Gone are almost all the trees and shrubs that once graced Beverley's 12 acres of garden and orchard. The Wellingtonia gigantica tree, grown by Mrs Perry from a seed given her by her first husband, George Rhodes, has escaped destruction. This was probably the tallest tree in Timaru in 2021. Entrance to this 30-roomed home was from the Great North Road, the original Beverley gates, now even the gates to Mr D. C. Turnbull's house, are gone too.
The house was used for returned servicemen and eventually pulled down where the RSA complex was built. There are not too many hints today that this grand home was once here other than Timaru's tallest tree. The tree was a gift from George so with its sentimental value she shifted the three year old tree by wheel barrow to the Beverley Garden. A case of champagne was bet over it's survial.
