In the Wake of the Pioneers: Fiordland Museum Trust Oral History Project
Subject
Subject Source: Local sources
Found in 62 Collections and/or Records:
DONALDSON, John Malcolm interviewed by Morag Forrester
Record Group — Box 52
Identifier: H0562
Overview
In 1965, as Te Anau faced a surge in population due to two major government construction projects in the district, John Donaldson saw an opportunity to set up his own pharmacy business in the town. A lean-to built onto another shop on the main street was the start of a 31-year tenure as Te Anau's pharmacist during which time he was also involved in the community's first ambulance service as well as its high school and local council. All of these topics are discussed through the interview during...
Dates:
2006
EXCELL, Robert Alfred (Alf) interviewed by Morag Forrester
Record Group — Box 49
Identifier: H0536
Overview
This is quite a lengthy interview easily divided into three parts, Nightcaps, World War II and Te Anau. Now in his eighties, Alf has good recall of his early years visiting the Te Anau basin in the 1920s as well as those first post-war years when he and Thelma chose to live in what was then still a small settlement. Listening through the interview you will hear descriptive details about some of the long gone people and dwellings that first dotted the water's edge of Lake Te Anau.
Dates:
2004
FRASER, Lovat Hugh interviewed by Morag Forrester
Record Group — Box 53
Identifier: H0563
Overview
A retired farmer, Lovat has experienced life on very different rural properties in the Te Anau Basin. As a child he and his brothers grew up amid the tussocks and sheep of a small pastoral run, The Gorge. During his early married life, he experienced farming in eastern Southland and at Mossburn until 1970 when he was one of the successful applicants of the ballot system for the government's new farm settlements in the Te Anau Basin. During this interview Lovat gives a personal account of the...
Dates:
2006
GALLAND, George Joseph William (Joe) interviewed by Morag Forrester
Record Group — Box 47
Identifier: H0524
Overview
In this interview Joe talks about his early life in Otago, Waikouaiti and then Dunedin. On leaving school Joe took up shearing. Joe then recounts his experiences of WWII in some detail. Joe served in the air force and was prisoner of war from 1943 to the end of the war, after his plane was shot down in Egypt. On his return Joe married and took on a lease for Elmwood Station at The Key. Initially Jo grew fescue, which was exported to the US, and made more money than sheep. Joe goes on to...
Dates:
2003 - 2004
GILLIGAN, Kathlyn Anne (Kathy) interviewed by Morag Forrester
Record Group — Box 47
Identifier: H0527
Overview
In this interview Kathy talks about her early years in Timaru and Invercargill. After leaving school Kathy worked for an accountancy firm. On her first visit to Te Anau in 1953 she met Terry Gilligan who had just started a transport business in the town. They were married in 1957 and Kathy moved to Te Anau. Conditions in the town at that stage were very different from Invercargill. Kathy found work in the local post office exchange and for Fiordland travel and in 1960 she became involved in the...
Dates:
2004
GILLIGAN, Terence John (Terry) interviewed by Morag Forrester
Record Group — Box 47
Identifier: H0528
Overview
In this interview, Terry outlines the history of his family in New Zealand. His Grandfather was Ernie Govan who leased the Te Anau Hotel and administered the Milford Track. Terry's early years were spent in Mossburn but due to ill health he also spent time in Te Anau. Terry took over his father's transport business in 1953. The business prospered due to the increased activity in the Te Anau area and in 1964 he amalgamated the business into Northern Southland Transport, where he stayed until...
Dates:
2004
GUNN, Murray Alexander interviewed by Morag Forrester
Record Group — Box 55
Identifier: H0581
Overview
For most of his life, the Hollyford Valley has played a significant role in Murray's life. As a boy it was a distant place where his father, Davey Gunn, tried to make a living as a high country farmer. On the other side of the country, Murray grew up in Oamaru surrounded by women, his mother, aunt and two sisters. His first visit to the Hollyford was as a schoolboy in the late 1930s when he was one of a party on a walking holiday. The contrast between his home environment and that of his...
Dates:
2008
HARRAWAY, Eoin David (Dave) interviewed by Kenneth Bradley
Record Group — Box 54
Identifier: H0573
Overview
Dave spent about eighteen years working as a shepherd and farm manager in the remote back country ranges between Mossburn and Te Anau before and after the government's 30-year farm development scheme in the same region. This interview looks at the changes Dave experienced working for an individual runholder whose attachment to, and investment in, the Burwood/Mavora/Centre Hill area could not compete with the government agency that by 1966 had bought the rights to the leasehold properties and...
Dates:
2008
HAZLETT, William Nicholl (Bill) interviewed by Morag Forrester
Record Group — Box 50
Identifier: H0547
Overview
Before the government undertook a major farm development programme in the Te Anau Basin between the 1950s and 1980s, the scattered large leasehold runs were in the hands of individuals/families. The Hazlet family of Invercargill took up the Burwood, Centre Hill and Mavora Runs in the 1920s but it wasn't until the estate became the responsibility of Bill's father (also named Bill) in the late 1940s that major developments were pioneered with the help of the newly introduced system of...
Dates:
2005
HUTCHINS, Olive Doreen interviewed by Morag Forrester
Record Group — Box 51
Identifier: H0550
Overview
For about twenty years, Olive was a member of the Board of Directors of Real Journeys (formerly trading as Fiordland Travel Ltd), one of New Zealand's largest tourist operators. Her late husband, Les Hutchins, was instrumental in shaping and developing tourism in Fiordland from small beginnings in 1954 to the multi-million dollar industry it has become in 2005.
In this profile, Olive describes the changes she has witnessed from life on a farm in Myross Bush, bringing up a young family on the...
Dates:
2005
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