Capital Trees: The arboreal legacy of Te Upoko-o-te-Ika the Wellington region

By Susette Goldsmith

Publication: October 2025
Pages: 280
Format: Limpbound with jacket 
ISBN:  978-1-99107209-2

RRP: $40

Available 9 October 2025.

From the fossil forest of Tītahi Bay and the ageing oak on Plimmer Steps, to the karaka grove on Wellington’s waterfront and a threatened stand of lowland beech in the Hutt Valley, Capital Trees journeys across the region to trace the living legacies of the city’s rich tree heritage and the many people who have shaped, protected and challenged it.

These legacies include arguments around heritage tree listing, the native versus exotics debate, biodiversity, attitudes towards heritage authenticity, trees as monuments and more, explored through facts, anecdotes and field notes.

Illustrated with contemporary photography and specimen illustrations of the species and individual trees covered, this book is a must for all who live in the Wellington region.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Susette Goldsmith is of Ngāti Māhanga and Pākehā descent and lives in Wellington. She is an independent writer and editor of non-fiction and an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington where she gained her PhD. Her scholarly research explores new ways of perceiving, interpreting and safeguarding natural heritage in twenty-first-century Aotearoa New Zealand, and her current focus is on our arboreal heritage. She has edited many museum, art gallery and scholarly books and monographs and, as a qualified and experienced journalist, has written articles and regular columns for diverse publications. She has published three social histories: The Gardenmakers of Taranaki (Ratanui Press, 1997), Tea: a potted history of tea in New Zealand (Reed, 2006) and Suzy’s: a coffee house history (Quill, 2010) , and edited and contributed to the essay collection Tree Sense: ways of thinking about trees (MUP, 2021).