Raymond Shearing

Interviewer: Janice Templeton

Abstracter: Jean Hawkes

[NOTE: The machinery collection that is referred to is at WAIPANGO not the one at Thornbury - JH]

Track 1

00.0 Interviewer identification

00.40 Family Tree – Mentioned.

00.50 RAYMOND ROBERT FRANCIS SHEARING born RIVERTON MATERNITY HOSPITAL. Doesn't use 'Francis'. Reason – Explained. Eldest of family.

01.34 Father – FRANCIS JOHN SHEARING Mother – BESSIE MARIE SUTHERLAND Grandfather – ROBERT GEORGE SHEARING

02.10 Sister ALMA and brothers ALISTAIR, DONALD, GORDON and FRANCIS. 02.21 Education – WAIPANGO, RIVERTON DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOL. Left school at 15 and couldn't leave quickly enough. Started when he was 6. Spent a lot of time outside as a small child.

03.19 Between RAYMOND and ALISTAIR mother had a miscarriage. Making a gap of four years between these two boys. Next came ALMA then DONALD, GORDON and FRANCIS.

03.45 Few memories of time before going to school.

04.23 Father had horse and jogger for farm work. Sled with wheels at back and skid at front. No memories of first tractor. First (bull)dozer about 1952. Big event. WD6 Tractor bought by father and grandfather about 1948 – Mentioned. Bulldozer TD9 International. Mainly used for farm work – filling in ditches, gorse clearing etc.

05.23 Farm in POURAKINO VALLEY, at the bottom of the valley just over the POURAKINO (concrete) BRIDGE. Children mainly brought up here. Time spent on grandfather's farm which is where RAYMOND is at time of interview. New home built on farm at WAIPANGO ROAD. RAYMOND'S parents lived in an old home two paddocks back. Delivery eighty pound cheese – Described Stores delivered to shelter shed. Bread delivered by KEELER [baker from Riverton and Invercargill – JH] Children took the bread home, leaving only the crust.

07.19 Going to school – walked, met up with PRENTICES, WILSONS and two HAIG (?) boys. THE NARROWS – Mentioned. WATSON, PANKHURST and JIM HAIG(?) – Mentioned. Father was at new house while family were with grandfather. RAYMOND scared of cows and bulls. MARLENE and PATRICIA (similar age to interviewer) – Mentioned. LORRAINE WILSON – Mentioned. Teacher – Mrs PONDER, Headmaster Mr HELLIER (?), returned serviceman. WILLIS connection – Mentioned. 09.45 When ALISTER started at WAIPANGO SCHOOL Mr HELLIER (?) always talked about the war and fighter planes. Headmaster's re-action to aerial topdressing planes flying over farms – Described. GUMMIES BUSH SCHOOL – Mentioned. WAIPANGO only school attended until went to RIVERTON.

10.29 Raymond states was in Standard Two when he left (Waipango) [NOTE: Maybe meant Form Two - JH]

11.04 Raymond was 21 when new house was being built. Remembers Polio Epidemic. Father took children to RIVERTON to get vaccine. Father had old BUICK, Straight 8 car. COLIN SOLANDER (?) asked FRANK (Raymond's father) “How fast will the car go?” Father put his foot down to find out. SOLANDER (?) boys – Mentioned.

12.16 Bus transport from POURAKINO VALLEY. MATTIE BRICE (?) and previously his father CLIFF BRICE drove bus. JOHN CARRAN – Mentioned. Incident with matches in bus – Described.

13.17 Chemical Works – Raymond remembers them being demolished. GILLIES – Mentioned. DICK COLLIS lived at chemical works. SHEARING children followed him around. DICK COLLIS took over TOM EADE'S property at ARMSTRONG ROAD. RAYMOND and ALISTAIR would have been 10 or 12 when they were with DICK COLLIS.

15.00 End of Track 1

Track 2

00.03 DICK COLLIS had on old NCK Excavator. Learned to drive by digging our rabbit holes on a bank.

00.15 RAYMOND and ALISTAIR'S efforts to build a unit using a seed dressing plant – Described. DICK COLLIS saw what they had done and built them a bucket. Bucket stored in FRANCIS' shed. Hill buggies – Mentioned.

01.28 Story writing at school. RAYMOND had to write real stories not made-up ones. 01.40 Activities with hill buggies – Described. State of ground – Described.

02.24 Had to round up cows and calves after tea. Children would ride the calves.

02.38 Father's farm – eventually went right to chemical works (700 acres). Ground is tidal due to POURAKINO RIVER, hard work. Tide extended almost to ERIC GUISE'S gate. When Raymond left school he carted tiles to drain land. Laying of tiles – Explained. Care of tile drainage – Explained. Special work needed on very wet ground – Described. 06.33 Thoughts about POURAKINO FARM – Explained. Worst farms HUGH COLLIE'S and SHEARING'S due to dampness and tidal water. Tide gate installed in river in later years.

07.18 Raymond returned to home farm when he left school. Received pocket money not a regular pay initially. Later received payment for milking 35 cows. Received total income. No lease for cows. Took milk to APARIMA DAIRY FACTORY. No pick-up vehicle, cut down Model A truck or car. Two cars cut in half. Probable Model A Club re-action – Mentioned. Still has a coupe that was cut down.

08.33 Six to eight cans of milk from two milkings. Situation at Dairy factory – Described. PRITCHARD'S STRAIGHT – Mentioned.. Loss of cans at WAYDIDGE (?) CORNER – Explained.

09.38 Calves taken to dairy factory , penned until bobby calf truck came to pick them up. Some kept for replacement. Incident recalled when going to factory with father. Father sent to look for Mr PRENTICE, had a DODGE truck carrying calves, when found he had gone off the road. Cause – Described. APARIMA RIVER – Mentioned. DON McPHEE factory manager – Mentioned. May have kept bull calves for beef.

12.04 Raymond's father ran a few beef cattle but kept mainly sheep. All cows on Raymond's farm.

12.18 Partnership with grandfather – Raymond was 21 when he went into partnership. Grandfather ready to slow down, wanted someone to take over. DONALD and RAYMOND given the chance to take it on. Partnership dissolved. Property bought. Raymond bought half about 1960. Donald had other half. Two blocks – Raymond's 221 acres. Donald's block 190 acres with no home, lived in ARMSTRONG'S cottage when he was first married. Raymond living at dairy factory at this stage. Grandfather went to RUTH LOCKETT'S at RIVERTON. Grandmother had died long before.

14.08 Raymond's father was an only son. Father's sisters RUTH, CHRYSTAL, ETHEL, AGNES. Next generation five boys and one girl. 15.00 End of Track 2

Track 3

00.04 Parts of original house 74 years old. Timber for houses brought up the rivers. Reason why houses built at back of farms, in most cases, accessible to the river. Raymond has photographs available of original farm house. Raymond took over grandfather's mortgage, at so much per acre. At this stage he started contracting at WAIRAKI, his first job. Used a BTD6 International (B=British, T=Track, D=Diesel crawler), 50 horse power. Ideal for agricultural work – first double-furrow plough on WAIRAKI STATION. Worked on 300 acres under Takis [TAKITIMUS – JH] Area – Described. In holidays RAYMOND, ROSALIE (?) and children stayed with GOW at BEAUMONT and JIM TURNBULL at BLACKMOUNT. Otherwise Raymond travelled for an hour each way each day. Came home at night to erect sheep breaks so stock could be moved next day. 03.46 No extra help on grandfather's farm. Had about 800 ewes. GORDON took the cows and milked them at POURAKINO. RAYMOND got license in a Bedford 3-ton truck (heavy vehicle) when he was 15.

04.43 Worked at WAIRAKI from 1963 to 1974. Had eighty clients in this time. Clients wanted him to take SLEE'S property rather than home farm. RON or JOHNNY McFARLANE – Mentioned. Family have done well with contracting – Explained.

06.28 Used car to go to work, had a tractor, a WD9 (wheel tractor) for top work. Ploughed 300 acres and helped to work it up. HUGH IRVINE or IRVING at WAIRAKI STATION had HUGH CLARK as tractor driver using a D2. HUGH CLARK and RAYMOND worked together on the block. Originally swedes planted on the 300 acres then back into grass. During winter put diesel instead of anti-freeze in Model A radiator to stop it from freezing.

08.25 Start of collecting vehicles – Model K Kleetrak (?) similar to one grandfather had on farm. HARRY DAWSON had owned it. Usage – Described. Done up in 1960s and 1970s and used for ploughing demonstrations. 09.16 Contracting – kept clients for quite a time. ALISTAIR took over agricultural side and was a driver for RAYMOND and so did GORDON. Also WILLIE TURNER. Bought another tractor, sold the W9, a 9G a CHAMBERLAIN tractor from AUSTRALIA. Had been a demonstration model shown by brother-in-law in CANTERBURY. Had 80 hours on it. Financial aspects – Described. MONTY MILLER, salesman of INTERNATIONAL HARVESTERS recommended buying new rather than second-hand machine. Had to buy plough as an extra.

11.05 Bank account – with Bank of New Zealand until major incident involving dozer at OHAI [NOTE: explained later – JH] BNZ had mortgage for farm. 11.40 Being paid Two pounds, seven and six pence [$2.75] per hour. Going rate for the time. Today at least One hundred and twenty [NOTE: Not sure if this is pounds or dollars – JH] 12.30 WAIRAKI CONTRACT – RAYMOND doesn't remember how he got it. MONTY MILLER did know. Did not advertise until later. Contact mostly by word-of-mouth. 13.26 With brothers' help kept going for about ten years. Mishap in 1983 which cost half of the farm (marriage split up) Agricultural side flagged away to concentrate on dozing. Father had almost given it away by this stage because he was ill. Father had done most of his own work.

15.00 End of Track 3.

Track 4 00.09 Busy with own farm. Bought farm from DOLAN some 90 acres and they took over CHARLIE PANKHURST'S side. In order to pay for farm kept contracting going. Raymond now has 411 acres which is the full original farm. Reasons why did not expand further – Explained. RAYMOND remarried to ANN TOMLINSON in 1978. Told sons GRAHAM and EWAN to see if they could buy farm of O'DONNELL and WHITE (cousin). Didn't get it. Worried that home farm would be lost. Purchase price $225,000 for 300 acres in 1984-1986. Without help of wife and family could not have kept farm.

02.15 Lawyer said half of property would have to sold to pay out first wife. RAYMOND disagreed. Bought another dozer went hard on outside work and paid out in cash. Difficult times. Comments regarding tax system.

03.36 Vintage equipment gathered over past twenty years. Items kept in old cow shed. Nights spent restoring machinery. National 10-20 crawler tractor probably next acquired similar to one brought up with, with father. It was DICK COLLIS' first bulldozer, blade fitted – Described. Items received from many sources.

05.23 Planned to restore one machine for each of the boys. Collection grew from here. DICK (COLLIS) mentioned one in OHAI in flooded opencast mine. TEREX – EUCLID TC 12 dozer. Powered by 2 671GM motors, blowered. 48 tons. Actually two tractors joined together with a pivot in the middle, cable blade and rippers on the back. DICK COLLIS had owned four at various times from nine that came into NEW ZEALAND. Two of DICK'S went to North Island, two stayed at OHAI. The machine salvaged at OHAI was DICK'S first new one. It was flooded in fifty two feet of water for 22 years Shaft driven mines at the start then open cast, stripping all of the top off. Pumps used to keep water out of mine WHISKY ROBERTSON used two pumps. One malfunctioned. Pumps running day and night. Didn't repair damaged one, second one broke down.

08.17 DICK COLLIS working on KILMOG in DUNEDIN, travelled to OHAI to deal with flooded tractor. Tractor should not have been there. Removed in 1984. Reason for machine being where it was – Explained. DICK tried to get tractor out, one motor would not start. WILSONS from INVERCARGILL called in but unsuccessful. Machine abandoned. No insurance on machine because it was being used underground. 10.17 BILL WARD from CLINTON said the machine was his. DICK COLLIS was in ENGLAND when RAYMOND was doing negotiations. On DICK'S return said machine had not been paid for. BILL said he had used a diver to locate machine – not true. Red faces when machine removed. Permits needed from Council, Agricultural and Fisheries, Iwi, Environment Southland (monitoring water). A 'lake' had formed. Pumped out 8 acres of water, 52 feet out. Drained two ponds. The location given by WHISKY ROBERTSON was correct. Many people came to the site. RAYMOND camped there. pumps had to be filled with diesel every six hours. Used 7 or 8 pumps. Water drained over bank into a creek. Environment Southland gave ten months to complete the job. 13.02 Eldest son GRAHAM married halfway through job. GEOFF BELLETT from INVERCARGILL manned the pumps for the night. Pumps worked day and night for seven weeks. RAYMOND put a diver down. Visibility nil due to blackness. For years jet-boaters said it could be seen from the surface – not true JOHN KING of KING'S TRANSPORT reckoned he had seen it – also not true. RAYMOND'S crew probed for it – Described. During the big flood in 1984 north end of hill came over and covered the machine. Removal of machine from silty-mud – Described. 15.00 End of Track 4

Track 5

00.08 Ripper tower first part struck. Lot of people giving 'advice' not necessarily correct. Camping conditions – Described. DICK COLLIS had thought depth was thirty to thirty-five feet. Calculation well out. Difficulty with pumps because of depth – Described. DICK still in ENGLAND. Tapes sent. LES BROWN came every second day or so to do a tape. None here for records. 02.21 BILL WARD, MARNANE (local contractor for coal at OHAI using a D9). Various machine used to removed EUCLID – Named. Actual removing of machine – Described. Chip Mill equipment used for double purchase – Described. Day machine was moved it snowed and rained and snowed. Conditions – Described. 04.51 Earlier when they had been there for two weeks ready to give up. Recommended to keep going. One man who had visited several times was later found to be local minister. Problems moving machine up the hill – Described. DICK COLLIS elated to receive tape when machine removed. Machine not in going order at the time of DICK'S death.

06.48 Machine taken to RAYMOND'S shed. It sat for three days before transport came to move it. COLIN COWLES got Fire Brigade pump from THORNBURY, spent all hosing the machine. Lots of help from good people.

07.33 Owner of mine, ERIC SINCLAIR, and land around the mine Pumps borrowed from ALLIANCE FREEZING WORKS. Damage to pumps – Described. Use of truck motor for repairs. 08.24 Change of bank because overdraft exceeded – Explained. NATIONAL BANK and STATE ADVANCES. BANK of NEW ZEALAND stopped credit. SIMON WALLACE (?) of NATIONAL BANK. Phone call with BANK of NEW ZEALAND regarding business – Explained. ANN BLACKMORE – Mentioned.

10.33 It was usual to stay with same bank as most banks were similar. Much different now. 10.53 More time spend on tractor than intended. Cost a lot of money. Machine is a big draw card for their museum. Programmes done for TV by BILL HOHEPA (TALKING TRUCKS) – Mentioned. Museum holds mainly tractors and a few trucks.

12.30 RAYMOND had two trucks on road in 1986 for transport service. Dozer work had quietened off. Farming down turn. Took out a Goods and Services License. EWAN now has as RIVERTON TRANSPORT, originally called WAIPANGO BULLDOZING and GENERAL CARRIERS.

13.11 General carrying – stock, fertiliser, tiles, hay etc. ANN and RAYMOND did bookwork at night. When EWAN took over he took diggers and TM Bedford. RAYMOND kept Dodge truck which he had from new. Now in INVERCARGILL TRUCKING MUSEUM [Richardson's – JH] Museum not competing with anyone else. Private museum. Nephews – STEPHEN, DONALD, ROBERT working on different models. For example JOHN DEERE, CATERPILLAR whereas RAYMOND'S collection is a mixture.

15.00 End of Track 5

Track 6

00.02 RAYMOND'S Museum holds mainly INTERNATIONAL, FIAT-ELLIS, FORDSON, KLEETRAK (?), ALLIS CHALMERS All machines exciting. DICK COLLIS' one most notable. Machine from WINTON LIMEWORKS bought when owner wanted to buy bigger machine. Used in bush at LORA GORGE. Forgot to drain cooler part and machine frosted so decided to sell it. Forty-eight ton INTERNATIONAL TD 25C, 360 horse power. EUCLID twin-cylinder is about 460 horse power. BROWNS – Mentioned. JACK ANDERSON, contractor in INVERCARGILL, in his eighties, living in NELSON and still driving a grader. He had the two TEREX 82-50s in museum which are 50 tons – used to push chips at the wharf until retired. One going and one for parts.

03.03 Probably sixty vehicles in shed at time of interview. Try to restore one machine per year. Family used to help before got own businesses. KURT, youngest – Mentioned.

03.50 Working on T6 and FIAT 50. Works on them nights and wet days.

04.17 New shed built to put machines under cover. Farm almost mortgage free. Contracting kept cash flow. Change for cattle to sheep – Explained. Mr KEY (Prime Minister) never mentions sheep only dairying. Comments regarding stock and prices for sheep and lambs. Probable closure of freezing works. Reasons – Explained.

07.43 RAYMOND still doing contracting through EWAN as he gets most of RAYMOND'S work. They work independently. Doing mainly gully work Contractors receive letters from Council telling them what they can and can't do. Can't touch scrub or tussock in gullies – cutting people out of work, including RAYMOND. Present situation regarding country areas – Described. Farmers unable to tidy small parts of their own land for fear of letters or fines. Problems if or when consent it applied for – Explained. 10.17 Lot of visitors to museum. No advertising, word-of-mouth. Influx as soon as TV programme went to air. No charge to view. Some collectors charge $10 admission. May have to charge because of time involved. TEMPLETON'S FLAXMILL asks for donation of $5, no complaints. ANN bakes pikelets, makes cup of tea for visitors to museum. Area also used as workshop because it is warm. Needs to be cleaned before every weekend. Son brings in crutching machine for repairs and uses the shed.

12.36 RAYMOND loves the collection and loves working as well. Hopes next generation will carry on. Had considered selling farm and setting up museum in ARROWTOWN. LONGWOOD ROAD and EWAN – Mentioned. Usually one organised group visiting per month plus others independently. Has three or four different sheds. 15.00 End of Track 6

Track 7

00.02 Enjoyed collection. ANN a keen gardener so RAYMOND would describe new items as 'Red Rose', 'Yellow Rose' depending on colour of tractor. Gardens and surroundings – Described. Man aged 84 visited from North Island who had 80 trucks. His achievement in getting into TEREX and driving it out of shed – Described. WILLIE, THE WRECKER from INVERCARGILL – Mentioned.

01.59 End of Track 7