Famous Times: Historic Woolsheds of Hawkes Bay

By Angus Gordon

The Gordon family have a historic woolshed, which was built in 1886. It has been turned into a museum to the sheep industry and has an auditorium, where shearing and dog shows are held for tourists. The idea came to Angus Gordon, one of the owners, to delve deeper into the greater Hawkes Bay area, which has been such a famous sheep farming area for over 160 years. This book is a photographic journey through the valleys and plains and along the dramatic coastline that was the original lifeline of the district. The original settlers were able to purchase large blocks of land because of the undeveloped nature of the country. Many of them became sheep barons, and then as they became wealthier, they began to build large and usually very beautiful woolsheds to shear the increasing numbers of sheep they were acquiring as they developed the land. The sheds were built of timber then, as native timber was still in plentiful supply, and they were very well built. Some had shingle roofs, and the floorboards were always tongue-and-groove Matai or Rimu.

Many of these sheds have now disappeared, replaced by modern, rather soulless corrugated-iron sheds, but as the author already knew, there are an awful lot of still very well-maintained historic sheds. This book is a tribute to the farmers who have clung on to their land so tenaciously over the years of diminishing returns and diminished size but have still maintained these sheds, which are now treasures of Hawkes Bay that not many people are aware of.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris NZ
• Release date: Jan 20, 2017
• ISBN: 9781499099157

Angus Gordon

Angus Gordon was born in Napier, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, on March 16, 1950, and is a fifth-generation farmer on the family farm, Clifton Station, which has been in the Gordon family for 155 years. In 1969, he went to Victoria University in Wellington, where he completed a BA in English, before doing two years as a volunteer teacher in Vanuatu. He then travelled and worked in Europe for three years, before returning to Clifton in 1977. He married Dinah in 1981, and they have two children—Tom, who farms with Angus, and Abby, who is a pilot currently residing in Norway. In 1999, Angus and Dinah built a large café and function center at Clifton by the beach, which they successfully ran for fourteen years before leasing the business. In 2004, Angus wrote and published a family history called In the Shadow of the Cape. He is currently farming the two thousand acres of Clifton in partnership with his son Tom, running fattening lambs and breeding cows and growing organic crops on their flat land. In 2016, a book called Cape Country was written by Angus’s sister Jenny Carlyon and Di Morrow, with help from Angus, and published by Random House. It is an in-depth story of Clifton and the neighboring properties with beautiful photographs by Richard Brimmer. In 2016, Angus finished his book called Famous Times: Historic Woolsheds of Hawkes Bay—a photographic journey through the beautiful province of Hawkes Bay, where he lives.

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 by Angus Gordon. 745367

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016920118

ISBN:   Softcover           978-1-4990-9916-4

              Hardcover         978-1-4990-9917-1

              EBook               978-1-4990-9915-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 01/19/2017

Xlibris

0800-443-678

www.xlibris.co.nz

I wish to acknowledge and thank the following:

All the woolshed owners who let me photograph their sheds and gave me information on the history of those sheds;

Miriam MacGregor, whose book ‘ Early Stations of Hawkes Bay,’ has been invaluable to me for the early history of a lot of the stations;

Michael and Carola Hudson of Gwavas, and Tom and Joanna Lowry of Okawa, who let me photograph their historic old photos of the shearing gangs;

And I wish to apologise in advance if I have missed out any woolsheds that might have qualified as over 100 years old. I have had to eliminate may fine woolsheds as they didn’t fit that category, but I might also have inadvertently just not known about some.

Contents

Introduction

Akitio

Apley

Aramoana

Arlington, Waipukurau

Big Hill

Blackhead

Bloomfield

Burnview

Cabbage Tree Flat Waimarama

Cape Kidnappers

Chesterhope

Chestermans’, Maraetotara Road

Clifton

Droxford

Edenham

Fairfield, Onga Onga

Fairfield Graffiti

Forest Gate, Onga Onga

Glen Aros

Glenross, Off The Taihape Road

Gruinard, Mackenzie Road

Gwavas

Haupouri, Ocean Beach, Looking Towards The Whakapau Bluff

Haupouri

Herbertville

Hedgeley, Eskdale

Hilton, Middle Road

Kahuranaki

Kelvin Grove

Poukawa Hills, Late Summer

Longlands Shed, Maraekakaho Road

Mangatapiri

Mangatarata, Waipukurau

Mangatoro, Dannevirke

Maraekakaho

Maraetotara Road

Matapiro

Middle Road

Moanaroa

Moeangiangi

Mokopeka

Okawa

Olrig

Omakere. Sheep On Road To Pourerere

Oreka

Oringi

Orua Wharo, Takapau

College Road, Te Aute

Papakihaua, Porangahau

Patangata

Patoka

Poporangi, Kereru

Porangahau

Rangitapu, Omakere

Raukawa

Rochford

Sherenden

Kotri, Springhill

Springvale, Tikokino

St. Lawrence

Symes’ Shed Te Aute Road

Tautane

Tautane

Te Apiti

Te Aratipi

Te Aute

Te Awa, Highway 50, Autumn Shearing

Te Maire, Wairoa

Te Manuiri, Omakere

Te Mata

Te Onepu

The Mission Farm, Taradale

Tourere Woolshed

Tuki Tuki

Tunanui

From The Burma Hill Looking Towards Mt Kahuranaki In The Distance

Turiroa, Wairoa

Waikaraka, Porangahau

Waimarama

Waipari

Waitukai

Waiwhare, Taihape Road

Wallingford

Whana Whana

Woodbank, Wimbledon

Also From This Author

INTRODUCTION

The idea for this book came to me purely by accident. In 2007 I was approached by a reporter from HB Today who wanted to write an article on myself and my book ‘In the Shadow of the Cape,’ which I had written in 2004. I said I was reluctant to do another story as I had already had wide publicity over the slip that devastated the hill behind our house in July 2006. The reporter was very persistent, as they can be, and so I said I’d only agree if we found a new angle to the story. I was standing outside our own woolshed at the time, talking to Ian Richardson, my partner in a new business doing farm shows for tourists that we had started in the old shed in 2006. ‘I know,’ I said to the reporter. ‘I’m wanting to do a book on the historic sheds of Hawkes Bay, so we can use that as the storyline.’ This was actually the first time I knew anything about such a scheme, but he agreed, and so I was committed.

I have since travelled thousands of kilometres. I did 1500 kms in my Holden Ute in just three days in the first week of May 2010, driving up every road off Highway 50 to the bottom of the Ruahine Ranges, driving in to Putere and then around the Cricklewood Road, travelling to Weber and then back up the coast, doing what I love best, noseying around a part of the world which goes mostly un-noticed these days, but which, as far as I am concerned, is one of the most beautiful places in the world, with a benevolent climate as an added bonus.

The Hawkes Bay pastoral farming industry was once synonymous with wealth. There was no insult worse that a radical student at Victoria University could throw at you in the 60’s than that you were nothing ‘