Torbay tī kōuka: A New Zealand tree in the English Riviera

In Torbay tī kōuka, photographer Wayne Barrar looks at how the New Zealand cabbage tree has been relocated, hybridised and utilised to redefine a new domestic landscape: the South West of England.

Defying the normal direction of ecological colonialism, the cabbage tree was introduced to Britain as an exotic specimen plant in the nineteenth century. Its tropical appearance and temperate hardiness made it a natural fit for the South West into the twentieth century, particularly as the Torbay area positioned itself as a UK tourist destination – the ‘English Riviera’.

The cabbage tree (tī kōuka, Cordyline australis) now appears extensively through the South West.  It is so closely identified with the area that, as the ‘Torbay palm’, it is one of the area’s key promotional symbols, and it is often presumed to be a native English plant. 

Wayne Barrar’s photographs begin by positioning tī kōuka at home in New Zealand, before going on to consider the plant in this new setting.  The work extends his long-term interest in the way people alter their environment, expand the limits of nature and live in increasingly constructed landscapes.

The photographs are accompanied by essays by New Zealand writers Philip Simpson and Peter Simpson, outlining tī kōuka’s botanical, ecological, and cultural histories.

Torbay tī kōuka: A New Zealand tree in the English Riviera

Photographs by Wayne Barrar

 With essays by leading writers Peter Simpson and Philip Simpson

Foreword by Liz Wells

Published by University of Plymouth Press

With the support of the College of Creative Arts, Massey University

December 2011

ISBN 9781841022970

64 pages plus one gatefold

Softbound 200 x 240mm. $34.95 (incl GST).

Available from good booksellers or order from the office of the School of Fine Arts, Massey University, PO Box 756, Wellington 6140, New Zealand; phone Ilka Kapica - (04) 801-5799, ext 62337; email i.kapica@massey.ac.nz

Wayne Barrar, an Associate Professor at the School of Fine Arts, Massey University. is a photographer whose work has been widely exhibited in New Zealand and internationally.  His books include Shifting Nature (Otago University Press, 2001) and An Expanding Subterra, published in 2010 by the Dunedin Public Art Gallery in association with his currently touring exhibition.