Eoin David (Dave) HARRAWAY

Interviewer: Kenneth Bradley

Interview Date: 4 May 2008

Tape 1. Side A

003: Opens discussion saying he started work as a SHEPHERD at BURWOOD (STATION) in AUGUST 1960 and that he held that position for two years. He was then promoted to HEAD SHEPHERD and continued to work at BURWOOD a further four years.

010: In 1966, he says, the DEPARTMENT of LANDS & SURVEY bought the property (which included the MAVORA RUN) and he was appointed as MANAGER of MAVORA by L&S.

019: Affirms that the former owner of BURWOOD was BILL (W.E.) HAZLETT. "When I arrived, young BILL (W.N.) HAZLETT was HEAD SHEPFERD for a few months and then he left and HAROLD NEYLON became HEAD SHEPFERD for a couple of years until he left and then I became HEAD SHEPHERD."

026: Says there were about five other SINGLE SHEPHERDS employed on the property. Goes on to say that the older HAZLETT left the day-to-day activities to his workers, occasionally helping out by, for example, taking a load of stores out to the CAREY'S HUT by LANDROVER, winding through boggy country in the bush at SOUTH MAVORA LAKE until the road was improved in the mid-1960s.

047: Affirms that the northern boundary line between BURWOOD/MAVORA and ELFIN BAY STATION (on LAKE WAKATIPU) was the PASS BURN. "It was a long way to the head of the MARAROA (RIVER) from the BURWOOD HOMESTEAD."

053: The eastern boundary (bordered also by MT NICHOLAS STATION) he says, was about a mile from the ORETI (RIVER) before going over the MARAROA catchment.

059: The southern boundary extended down the ORETI to CENTRE HILL HOMESTEAD. "The ORETI RIVER itself was the boundary between BURWOOD and WEST DOME STATION." He adds that it was about 1962/63 that WEST DOME STATION (proprietors) "relinquished the LEASE of that BLOCK" and BILL HAZLETT "took it over".

068: As a result, HAZLETT extended the BURWOOD estate across the ORETI up into the hills. "I think there was about 10,000 acres from the MT NICHOLAS boundary right down to the WINDLEY (RIVER).

073: Affirms that HAYCOCKS and BURWOOD BUSH were also part of BURWOOD STATION as well as all of "what became MT HAMILTON (STATION)" prior to 1961 when the new property was formed. "It was just called the CENTRE HILL BLOCK before that."

082: The proprietors of THE GORGE HILL STATION, he recalls, sold that LEASE to BILL HAZLETT (SEN.) at the same time as HAZLETT sold BURWOOD to LANDS & SURVEY. "And he retained about... 1500 acres round the BURWOOD HOMESTEAD and across the road on the DOG TRIAL HILL."

098: Affirms that about a year or so after BURWOOD was sold to L&S, BOB METHERALL, of ELFIN BAY STATION, took up a LEASE on the UPPER MARAROA (RIVER) from BUSH CREEK to the VON SADDLE.

109: Recalls that before he sold the property, HAZLETT ran about 12,000 ROMNEY EWES and about 1400 HEREFORD CATTLE.

116: "We'd take the EWES up to LAKE MAVORA after the LAMBS were weaned (end of JANUARY) and the EWES were shorn." He adds that they were brought out early APRIL when they did a full MUSTER.

122: "They'd come back down for TUPPING (mating) to the BURWOOD paddocks.'

136: While some of the EWES were put along the ORETI area, he says this was mainly CATTLE country. EWES were also LAMBED on the paddocks nearer the HOMESTEADS at both BURWOOD and CENTRE HILL.

143: Extra STOCK were then spread out to the HAYCOCKS, CHIMNEYS and further up the ORETI while BALD HILL was more of a wintering BLOCK for EWES.

150: HAYMAKING, he affirms, again was around the HOMESTEAD paddocks. "No SILEAGE in those days, it was all small bales of GRASS HAY."

155: In the early 1960s, he remembers there were three "big, old army quad TRUCKS — old FORD V8s and we'd carry HAY sometimes from CENTRE HILL to BURWOOD."

163: Asked about POST-SPLITTING work that was done on the property, he says it was BILL TEMPLETON "commonly known as BOAR HIDE" who did the SPLITTING and NICK KELLY from MOSSBURN, who had a contract to supply BIRCH POSTS to L&S, carried out the timbers.

170: Recalls there was not a lot of new FENCING work done during HAZLETT'S time at BURWOOD, although they did of lot of repair and maintenance work.

176: Mentions a former BURWOOD employee named BEN HORE who talked of their having built a swing bridge across the (MARAROA) river between the two lakes and that they led the SHEEP across at that point to take them up onto the WEST BURN side of the property. "But they lost a lot with TUTU (a shrub or small tree whose berries and leaves are poisonous to STOCK) on a steep face and they were rolling off the hill into the lake... so that was only done one year and they abandoned that idea."

183: Recalls using a weed spray against TUTU around the CAREY'S HUT area when he was working there. And although there was not a lot of BRIAR around that area, there was a patch of it on the flats along the ORETI, around the PATERSON'S HUT area — at the northern end of LINCOLN HILL.

193: MATAGOURI was a problem, he says, on the HAYCOCKS hill "especially after we started TOPDRESSING it all".

201: When he was appointed by as MANAGER of BURWOOD (in 1966), he says his staff included five or six SINGLE SHEPHERDS and one MARRIED SHEPHERD. "The first year we more or less sorta carried on as we'd being going and then we started developing."

205: Developing, he continues, began at the CENTRE HILL end of the property. Between 400 and 700 acres were ploughed up each year, then FENCED and GRASSED into paddocks. And he recalls that as the development progressed, the STOCK numbers increased rapidly. As a result, they had to increase the number of workers.

210: It was 1972, he says, when the property was divided into CENTRE HILL and MAVORA. By then, the staff had increased to about sixteen. BRUCE KEMPTHORNE, who had been HEAD SHEPHERD, became ASSISTANT MANAGER.

215: Recalls the STOCK numbers had increased to about 35,000 EWES and about 5,500 CATTLE "in about six years".

223: To "break-in" the land, he says they tried to grow SWEDES at first but the crops "weren't very good". He adds that it took about three years for the GRASS to get really established. "But we short-circuited that by putting half a ton of SUPER (phosphate) on per acre right at the start and then away the GRASS went."

229: As well as the BLOCKS being developed, he says they "over-sowed" a lot of HILL COUNTRY each year. Remembers one year when they did 5,500 acres along the HAYCOCKS.

237: The HILL COUNTRY was also FENCED into much smaller BLOCKS. "It took three gangs of contract FENCERS at times." In addition, there was the building of houses and SHEEPYARDS and WOOLSHEDS as the development progressed.

242: Recalls the AGRICULTURAL CONTRACTOR hired by HAZLETT was STAN KEYSE who continued for much of the L&S work. A second CONTRACTOR was also hired — the DAVIDSON BROTHERS, originally from RIMU.

247: DAVIDSONS, he says, broke in the first BLOCK which ran for 750 acres from CENTRE HILL terrace to the BURWOOD BUSH. They had two TRACTORS, he remembers, with two-furrowed swamp ploughs "and it took them half a day to do one round and the other half to do the second round".

259: Mentions KEVIN CAIRNS (MOSSBURN) was one of the FENCING CONTRACTORS for a few years. CAIRNS' predecessor was a man whose surname was MCDOWELL, he says, and attributes the invention of the POST DRIVER to him. There was also KEVIN MARTIN (MOSSBURN).

280: Recalls that the DAVIDSONS imported a CANADIAN-made machine called a STACK AND MOVER. Says it was 11 ft wide, 20ft long and 9ft high. "The blooming thing would only just fit through a 12ft gateway; you had to be very accurate."

311: Unable to provide details about the original HOMESTEAD on the MAVORA RUN, he does however remember an old HUT in the same vicinity "with timber shingle-shake things on the roof— pit sawn timber — and it was lined inside with newspapers from the old OTAGO WITNESS about 1890 something".

315: But it and other remains such as the old SHEEPDIPS and YARDS, he says, all rotted away over time.

333: Referring back to the HAZLETT days, he recalls that with the base number of EWES at around 12,000 a lot of LAMBS were sent away "fat off their mothers" (in JANUARY).

336: "It'd be a big day. You'd have a whole lot of STOCK AGENTS in. We'd draught the...LAMBS off the EWES … and they'd go down to the WOOLSHED and the STOCK AGENTS would be goin' through them an' takin' all the fats out. All done in one day.'

342: Replies that the LANOS were carted straight down to the meat works (at LORNEVILLE) although he remembers that while working for L&S they drove CATTLE to MOSSBURN for transport by rail to LORNEVILLE "before CASTLEROCK SALEYARDS was built".

344: "We put the first lot of CATTLE into the CASTLEROCK SALEYARDS … two-year-old STEERS mostly."

360: During a chat about his pre-BURWOOD days and the HARVEST of FESCUE, he mentions that although it was before his time, he recalls that such HARVESTING occurred around MOSSBURN and as far as TE ANAU DOWNS STATION.

364: States that he was MANAGER of the whole BURWOOD/MAVORA/CENTRE HILL run for six years and when it was split in two, he became MANAGER of the CENTRE HILL half. Including the six years for HAZLETT, he worked a total of eighteen years on the property.

372: Mentions that HAZLETT also owned a property near INVERCARGILL, TARAMOA, (where he ran a RACEHORSE STUD business) and it was there that BURWOOD'S HEREFORD BULLS were bred.

380: Replies that when he arrived at BURWOOD, there were a lot of wild DEER but few PIGS which were far better represented on MARAROA STATION. "We shot a lot of DEER around the head of LAKE MAVORA and skinned them for our pocket money before the VENISON market started a couple years later."

385: It was common, he says, to see mobs of thirty or forty DEER around that area.. .and on one occasion they counted about seventy in the one herd near the head of the SWINDON BURN.

389: There were quite a few FALLOW DEER (as opposed to the more common RED) around the head of LAKE MAVORA, he adds, which would have come out of the GREENSTONE VALLEY.

391: "BILL HAZLETT used to come out with quite a few packets of ammunition and say 'go and shoot all the DEER you can see up and down the tracks' and a few days later you'd have the forestry (FOREST SERVICE section of the DEPARTMENT of1NTERNAL AFFAIRS) people come out for inspection."

402: Recalls that HAZLETT gave the WOODFORD BROTHERS (of MOSSBURN) the right to shoot all the DEER on his property following the start of the VENISON MARKET in NEW ZEALAND. He later added that in return for those shooting rights, the WOODFORDS did the packing out and cooking for the MUSTERING trips.

405: With a LANDROVER and TRAILER, he says, they could carry about twenty-four carcasses which they brought out to the VENISON FACTORY at MOSSBURN and after stocking up with supplies, turned round and went straight back to the DEER shooting. He adds that they had built a meat safe at the FORKS HUT.

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Tape I Side B starts

027: Referring back to the days of HAYMAKING on MAVORA, he recalls they made about 120,000 (small) BALES each year. And during the earlier L&S years, his team put out 400 BALES a day for a mob of COWS in the CENTRE HILL/ORETI FLATS area.

055: Explains that in those days the BALES were loaded onto farm vehicles by hand and fed out by hand. Round BALES and silage made by machine have made the job much easier, he says.

066: Mentions that it was 1964 when he got married so for "us single guys the weekend thing was to go to the pub". Although he adds that they also played rugby, at MOSSBURN.

077: After leaving the job with at CENTRE HILL (in 1978), he says he went to BUSHY PARK at PALMERSTON (NORTH OTAGO) to work as MANAGER there for four years.

080: He then went to FOVERAN in the HAKA (TARAMEA) VALLEY to develop a large DEER STUD and retired from there a few years ago.

095: Mentions that the property gradually increased in size and a few changes were introduced such as TROPHY HUNTING (DEER). The owner bought another nearby property, he adds, named WINTERBURG, which added a further 2000 acres to the 3,500 FOVERAN property.

102: More recently, he says, the owner bought another property, HAKA DOWNS, which had been one of the historic rural properties in the area. "So that was another 2,500 acres, I think. All those were developed into DEER farms with a lot of irrigation."

115: Before he moved to BURWOOD in 1960, he replies that (on leaving school) he spent two years working on a FARM at NGAPARA (near KUROW). "Mostly TRACTOR-driving and a fair bit of CROPPING and SHEEP." From there, he says, he went MUSTERING with (a team of about eight) dogs around the MIDDLEMARCH area for about a year followed by three years HIGH COUNTRY MUSTERING around the LINDIS PASS, based at DALRACHNEY STATION.

133: Recalls that around HAYCOCKS (on BURWOOD) there were quite a few WILD HORSES, some of which were broken-in on the STATION.

139: Affirms that a lot of the STOCK work was done on horseback, particularly during HAZLETT'S tenure. "It was nothing to ride fifty miles in a day."

149: It was quite common, he says, to ride from BURWOOD HOMESTEAD to the FORKS HUT (about seven hours).

151: Remembers one job which HAZLETT called 'HUNTING THE COWS UP' which meant going on horseback along the MARAROA, through to the ORETI, down that valley round the CHIMNEYS area back to BURWOOD. He explained that because the STOCK ranged over such a large area, they had to round up the COWS to ensure they were in closer proximity to the BULL during the breeding season.

158: He had to follow this same route, he continues, every second day for about six weeks

166: During the annual MUSTERS, he says, there were at least six STOCKMEN, their HORSES and an extra PACKHORSE. It took about six days of MUSTERING before they reached the head of LAKE MAVORA.

173: Before L&S closed off that area, he recalls that on the last big MUSTER, they drove 19,400 EWES out to the head of the lake. "They were strung out through the bush up there for miles." It took about three days, he adds. Immediately afterwards, he says, a couple of SHEPHERDS were stationed at CAREY'S HUT (from late JANUARY to early APRIL) to keep HUNTING out more EWES that drifted down onto the flats.

188: The SHEEP were in different areas.. .one mob might be in the BUSH CREEK side while another was up in the FORKS and another in the WEST BURN.

201: Mentions that he talked to some of the MUSTERERS who'd worked the area in the 1930s. Says they told him it took up to six weeks to complete the annual MUSTER moving from the MARAROA VALLEY into the EAST BRANCH of the EGLINTON VALLEY and the head of the UPUKERORA VALLEY.

215:Interview ends

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