Person recorded: Peter Alexander Brotherston

Date recorded: 4 July 2005

Interviewer and Abstractor: Morag Forrester

Tape counter: Sony TCM 939

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006: States he was born PETER ALEXANDER BROTHERSTON in 1936 at the old maternity hospital in LUMSDEN.

012: Explains that his parents at that time were living in the HOLLYFORD VALLEY (at the MARIAN CAMP) where his FATHER, ALEX, was working as a MECHANIC on the HOMER TUNNEL - part of the MILFORD ROAD construction project.

027: Further explains that his FATHER had told the authorities he would only work on the project if his wife and child (there was only one at that stage) were able to live at the workers’ camp.

036: Mentions his FATHER was named ALEXANDER HUNTER CAMPBELL BROTHERSTON, the CAMPBELL derived from the maternal side of his FATHER’S family, who, he said came from SCOTLAND.

039: Adds that his FATHER was born at ST BATHANS, CENTRAL OTAGO, into a GOLDMINING family. Also says his GREAT GRANDPARENTS (BROTHERSTON) had emigrated as MINERS from SCOTLAND.

050: Some confusion, he continues, surrounds his GRANDFATHER, WILLIAM BROTHERSTON, who was born in the IDA VALLEY, CENTRAL OTAGO, but there does not appear to be a birth certificate for him and further evidence suggests he’d been adopted.

073: However, his GREAT GRANDFATHER BROTHERSTON, he says, immigrated from SALTOUN, south of EDINBURGH in 1863/64 on the SILISTRA bound for DUNEDIN.

082: After arriving at DUNEDIN, he says, the BROTHERSTONS went straight to the GOLDFIELDS in CENTRAL OTAGO.

094: As to his MOTHER’S side of the family, he says she was named MARY RENFREW REID and was descended from the MCDONALD clan. Goes on to say that as one of eleven children, she was born in DIPTON where her father had a farm

099: States her father was named PETER JOHN HOOD MCDONALD, originally from MANGATUA in the TAIERI district south of DUNEDIN. Adds that the MCDONALDS had immigrated from SCOTLAND in the late 1850s.

110: Replies that his PARENTS possibly met in TE ANAU during the 1920s because his MOTHER worked at the TE ANAU HOTEL and at GLADE HOUSE (on the MILFORD TRACK) briefly. His FATHER, he adds, sometimes drove vehicles between LUMSDEN and TE ANAU.

120: On the other hand, he speculates, they may have met at dances in BALFOUR where his MOTHER had also sometimes worked during the same period.

139: States he was one of eight children, one of whom lived for only about 24 hours.

143: Replies that his PARENTS went to live in the HOLLYFORD VALLEY in 1933 and left when the road project closed in 1941 (as a result of WWII).

150: Admits that because he was very young when they lived there, he cannot recall much about conditions at the MARIAN CAMP. However, he recalls his MOTHER saying that he and his two OLDER SISTERS had never had a cold until they went to INVERCARGILL (after they left).

167: Remembers that their accommodation was a hut with a bedroom on either side of the kitchen area which had a coal range, and a washhouse and toilet were situated by the side of the dwelling.

176: Replies that unlike the very early huts which were timber and canvas, he recalls their home was completely timber with an iron roof.

188: Mentions that his SISTERS went to the school at the neighbouring HOMER CAMP Recalls going with them when he was about four years old and being given pencils and paper on which to draw “probably to try and keep me quiet, keep me out of mischief”.

199: When they left the HOLLYFORD, he says, they moved first to HARVEY ST where he went to WAIKIWI PRIMARY SCHOOL and then to MARY ST, INVERCARGILL where he attended NORTH SCHOOL.

207: Replies that it was quite a large school with up to 200 pupils on its roll. Adds that they were taught the basic subjects and remembers having to learn by rote, specifically multiplication tables and spelling.

226: Of his teachers, he says he remembers a MISS MORTON, MR JENKINS, MR MASON and MR WELSH (the school principal).

234: Apart from academic learning, he says they were taught a variety of sports. Replies that at one stage he was the fastest runner in the school and that he competed for SOUTHLAND in swimming heats. Says he also played SOCCER for SOUTHLAND JUNIORS and in later years, RUGBY for the NORTHERN SOUTHLAND team. Adds that he was “reasonably proficient” at RIFLE SHOOTING and ROWING.

257: Secondary education, he says, was at the SOUTHLAND TECHNICAL COLLEGE, INVERCARGILL. Recalls that at quite an early stage, he planning on becoming a FARMER so he enrolled in the RURAL CLASS.

272: States that he left school at the age of sixteen after gaining his school leaving certificate.

277: During the war years, he replies, his FATHER was a member of the HOME GUARD registered with the 2nd DIVISION and sent to WELLINGTON to work in munitions, which he also did at a firm called T.R. TAYLORS in INVERCARGILL.

292: States that because of his FATHER’S engineering skills, he’d been classed as an “essential worker” and therefore required at home rather than being sent overseas.

320: Mentions both his paternal GRANDPARENTS lived in LUMSDEN and recalls attending their 50th wedding anniversary in 1943, although his GRANDFATHER, WILLIAM THOMAS, died about 1946.

329: Says his GRANDMOTHER, AGNES, lived on into the early 1950s and latterly stayed in OAMARU where he spent some time with her when he briefly attended WAITAKI BOYS HIGH SCHOOL.

339: Considers it was probably his FATHER’S sister who was a teacher in OAMARU that recommended he be sent to WAITAKI although he was only there for one term.

355: Referring to his FATHER’S occupation, says he’d apprenticed and worked as a BLACKSMITH in LUMSDEN before becoming a MECHANIC. Post-war, his FATHER formed a partnership with HARRY PARSONS who was a neighbour in INVERCARGILL.

363: Mentions that HARRY PARSONS father-in-law, named PAT FOGHARTY, had operated a POSTCUTTING business around the WHITESTONE RIVER near TE ANAU but on retirement sold it to HARRY and ALEX BROTHERSTON.

366: Although he doesn’t know how much the business cost, he remembers it included “an old BEDFORD truck, two or three draught horses and a couple of huts”. Says it was operated out of a “gully in the DALE bush about straight opposite MT PROSPECT homestead”.

372: However, the two partners decided to shift it further along the WHITESTONE into the bush on the other side of the DALE VALLEY, virtually on the boundary between MT PROSPECT STATION and the LANDS & SURVEY DEVELOPMENT SITE.

380: Replies that although they did some of the tree felling, they hired POSTCUTTERS, including ALAN DOBECK, HAROLD MCNAUGHT, JIM NEWMAN and BOB JONES.

387: Goes through the process as it was done in the 1940s and 1950s, starting with felling the trees with CROSSCUT SAWS and cutting them into 5ft 6in lengths. Then, he says, they would SPLIT the TIMBER using an AXE and WEDGES. “So it was all full manual work.”

391: The next stage, he says, was to get the TIMBER out. This was when the horses were used, he says: with a sledge they carried the (TIMBER) POSTS out of the bush “probably 50 at a time behind the horses”.

394: Later on, he continues, they used a petrol CATERPILLAR-10 TRACTOR to sledge the POSTS out to the CAMP and the truck which would transport them to market.

398: Remembers the old truck “wasn’t all that great” and that it had to manoeuvre a 13-mile journey down the WHITESTONE, including river crossings, to reach the highway. “So it was subject to weather all the time and the old BEDFORD used to get bogged and such.”

402: The partners then bought a second truck, a THORNIECROFT, which although bigger didn’t perform much better. It was soon replaces by an ex-army GMC 6x6.

411: In those days too, he adds, the highway between TE ANAU and MOSSBURN was still a gravel road “which was quite a journey in those days…over the GORGE HILL”.

413: At MOSSBURN, he says, due to government regulations, they had to offload the POSTS onto a railway wagon to complete the journey to the farm markets.

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002: Continuing the theme of POSTCUTTING, he says that one tree averages 200 POSTS and that good POSTCUTTERS would SPLIT about 100 POSTS a day.

018: Replies that his FATHER had the business for about three years from about 1946. And that it was based only in the WHITESTONE area although he thinks they did some POSTCUTTING for the COCKBURNS (of MARAROA STATION) at SAWMILL GULLY.

034: Mentions there were rival operators working in the BASIN – one worked out of the UPUKERORA VALLEY, named LEW DEAN whose camp was near TAKARO LODGE.

047: Adds that DEAN’S business was taken over by GRAHAM DENTON who was probably the last to cut POSTS in that area. DEAN, he continues, also cut POSTS out of the BURWOOD BUSH, further east while BERNIE CHANEY and TREVOR CARLTON did the same through the DALE BUSH at the start of the government’s land development project in the late 1950s.

089: Says all the operators probably had similar transfer obstacles in getting the POSTS out of the bush to the main highway as his FATHER and PARSONS.

102: Names some of the hired men that DENTON and DEAN took on as BILL and MERVYN TEMPLETON from TUATAPERE. Workers taken on by CHANEY included DOUG ALLEN, DEREK FENWICK and ALLAN CHALMERS.

125: Says that while his FATHER ran the POSTCUTTING business, he was still at school but would tag along during the holidays and go rabbit SHOOTING along the WHITESTONE FLATS.

141: Explains that POSTCUTTING involved “selective logging” rather than clear FELLING. He also says that red beech was the only species suitable for FENCE POSTS as the other locally grown species rotted away in the soil.

156: Small trees, he says, were not CUT because it made no sense to expend the same amount of energy SPLITTING TIMBER from a tree that would result in fewer POSTS.

160: Before a tree was decided on for FELLING, the worker would test it first to check that it wasn’t hollow. “They could tell by the ring (chime) of the axe whether the tree was hollow or rotten in the centre.”

167: Replies that the POSTS were used for FENCING (on FARMS) and virtually all were shipped out to FARMS south of MOSSBURN.

187: Suggests that the business was anything but lucrative in that he remembers some hard times. For example, he says, he recalls the difficulties around paying the rent at home in INVERCARGILL.

193: Says that while at the WHITESTONE, his FATHER lived in the camp huts and describes the interior. Adds that firewood consisted of the slab-cut waste timber from the FELLED trees.

204: Their diet, he says, was RABBIT, DEER, WILD PIG and sometimes MUTTON from a SHEEP donated by a local “cockie” (FARMER).

211: Unlike current practice, he says, the TIMBER went straight into the ground as FENCING. “You just dug the holes and stood it up in the ground and rammed it to make a FENCE POST.”

218: The FENCING wire, he continues, was usually attached with staples to the POSTS, although occasionally a FARMER would insist on holes being drilled into the TIMBER through which the wire would be threaded.

221: “I spent many an hour, when I first worked at THE PLAINS STATION for (the) MACDONALDS drilling a load of POSTS with a BRACE and BIT…seven holes in every POST for hundreds of POSTS. It was the most boring, monotonous job I think I’ve ever had (laughs).”

228: Illustrates a BRACE and BIT saying it is an auger (a tool shaped like a corkscrew and used for boring holes in wood).

236: Replies he was paid five pounds a week for that job.

243: Mentions that on leaving school he first worked (1952) in a BUTCHER’S SHOP in LUMSDEN (MCKINNEL’S which was later taken over by TREVOR ROSS). There, he goes on, he learned to slaughter CATTLE, SHEEP and PIGS at the SLAUGHTERHOUSE on the outskirts of the town.

263: From that job, he says, he worked for the NZ FOREST SERVICE in INVERCARGILL as a TIMBER CRUISER working in a gang of five or six, mainly in the CATLINS area.

274: Explains that the job was essentially to survey areas where TIMBER could be FELLED and to mark specific trees for CUTTING.

285: Says the trees were mainly MATAI and RIMU – hardwood TIMBERS used for house-building or furniture making.

300: It was in 1953, he says, that he began working at THE PLAINS STATION for ANGUS MACDONALD whose sons, HAMISH and JOHN also did the FARMWORK. The younger son, DAVID, was still at school, he adds.

308: Replies that they were good employers who treated him well. Recalls that ANGUS and (EVELYN) MACDONALD considered themselves of a different status from their workers.

317: His accommodation on the STATION was a hut but meals were taken in the homestead, although not shared with the MACDONALDS.

323: Says he earned five pounds/week as a FARMHAND, working six days on an average nine-hour day. The job consisted of milking cows, TRACTOR work, FENCING, repairing FENCES, shearing.

330: Remembers that his first job there was as a SHEDHAND in the woolshed at shearing time and he was asked to stay on when it was finished.

336: Other workers at THE PLAINS at that time included the cowman/gardener, ALLAN JAMES, and cook/housekeeper, ELLEN MCKENNA, who originally started work on the STATION as a LAND GIRL during WWII.

360: Leisure time, he says, was spent listening to the radio, reading and sometimes SHOOTING, particularly rabbits. “There was hundreds and thousands of rabbits around in those days so I’d go over the road with a packet of ammunition and blow away 30 or 40 rabbits.”

365: Mentions that was in the days when the government had “de-commercialised” rabbits, making them value-less so “you just shot them and left them”.

377: Recalls that about 1955 when he first started working for the LANDS & SURVEY DEVELOPMENT SCHEME at LYNWOOD (STATION), he once went through a full packet of ammunition to SHOOT rabbits within half an hour.

389: Remembers that he was PLOUGHING the development land, the tractor was driven in circles into the middle of the paddock and by the time it had reached the centre about a dozen rabbits would have congregated.

397: Referring to his work as a WOOLSHED hand, says he began that type of work at BURWOOD STATION when he was twelve years old when he got a job as “dag boy – the lowest job in the WOOLSHED (laughs)”.

401: Explains what a “dag” is: an accumulation of manure and dirt tangled in the wool hanging from the back end of the SHEEP.

408: Says that in the WOOLSHED at BURWOOD there were ten blade shearers. Also gives further explanation of what his job entailed. Says his pay was about 30s/week.

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012: States that at BURWOOD, the STATION had its own MUSTERERS as well as a few hired just for the annual roundup because of the distances that had to be covered to bring in all the SHEEP.

021: YARDHANDS, he adds, sorted the SHEEP in the PENS as they were lined up for the SHEARERS. Then the WOOLHANDS included a CLASSER who graded the quality of the FLEECES and PRESSERS who stuffed the WOOL into BALES which were transferred to the WOOLSHED.

039: Of the SHEARERS he met the season he worked at BURWOOD, he says the surnamed of the RINGER (HEAD SHEARER) was (DOUG) SMART. Another name he remembers was WALKER.

049: Replies that there was a separate COOKHOUSE next to the SHEARERS quarters which were bunk-style communal accommodation. Adds that a SHEARERS COOK would have been hired specially.

059: States that the actual work of SHEARING consisted of a nine-hour day for the men, starting about 7am.

068: Comments that a good BLADE SHEARER would tally about 100 SHEEP a day.

075: Describes the BURWOOD runholder then, BILL (W.E) HAZLETT as big, boisterous and blustery. Adds that he more often met the HAZLETT children, BILL (W.N) and his sisters, ANNABEL and MARY.

081: Mentions that MARY sometimes helped with the MUSTERING and that both women would assist in the SHEARING SHED.

091: After the job at THE PLAINS, he says, he went to work for SOUTHLAND FARM IMPROVEMENTS (although he later qualifies this by saying that he first went to AUCKLAND to do his COMPULSORY MILITARY TRAINING), owned by FRED FINLAYSON, ERIC MOWAN and CHARLIE CAMERON who also operated the business in TE ANAU.

100: Explains that this company was contracted by the LANDS & SURVEY DEPT., to carry out the development of LYNWOOD STATION which was the first of the large leasehold properties in the BASIN to be bought back by the government.

102: The two main contractors, he says, were CHARLIE CAMERON’S outfit and one owned by another TE ANAU resident, DON ROBBIE.

111: States that CAMERON, and probably ROBBIE, had a contract to PLOUGH 2,000 acres of land each year.

117: The PLOUGHING was done, he says, from FEBRUARY/MARCH until SEPTEMBER. “All, you know, rough country straight out of virgin tussock most of it, some of it out of manuka and bracken and fern.”

126: Replies that the work began directly behind the old LYNWOOD homestead between the WHITESTONE and the WILDERNESS. Adds that he was in at the beginning and was hired to drive a TD-6 TRACTOR for “top work”.

133: This, he explains, involved pulling discs, harrows and rollers to CULTIVATE the PLOUGHED soil and prepare it for GRASS SEED.

137: Describes the TD-6 as a good machine to drive but perhaps not to own as they were inclined to break down more often than a CATERPILLAR and were therefore more expensive to run.

144: Says that on a good day he would PLOUGH about 30 acres .

154: Before the land improvement scheme got underway, he says, the bulk of LYNWOOD from its boundary with the WILDERNESS (formerly part of MARAROA STATION) west to the TEN MILE BUSH was red tussock country.

168: To begin with, he says, the growth was burnt off before it was PLOUGHED.

174: Of the area covered in manuka, he says, from LYNWOOD RD towards the WHITESTONE, a TD-9 bulldozer was used to flatten the trees and shrub.

188: While employed at LYNWOOD, he says, there were four of them doing the job, two on a TD-6 each and a third on the TD-9, plus CAMERON who concentred on keeping the machines in working order.

204: States his wages were much better than his previous earnings at THE PLAINS. “We used to earn 10s/hr flat rate. So the more hours you put in in a week, the more you earned.” He averaged between 40 and 60 hours a week.

212: Living quarters, he says, was an old house that had once been a FARMHAND’S cottage (opposite the LYNWOOD homestead).

233: Replies that he worked for CAMERON between 1955 and 1959 with an eight month break to do his OE (overseas work experience) in AUSTRALIA.

246: Although he only worked on the development of the LYNWOOD block, he says other areas that were also under improvement (between the mid-1950s and late-1960s) were TAKITIMU (formerly part of MANAPOURI STATION), FREESTONE, the WILDERNESS and further east at CENTRE HILL STATION.

270: Mentions some of the other contractors involved in the wider development as CARRAN BROTHERS at TAKITIMU, HELLEBREKKERS and DENIZE who worked on the TE ANAU BLOCK on the other side of the UPUKERORA along SINCLAIR ROAD.

276: Describes the latter as “tiger country” in that it was covered in rocks and manuka and was very hard on machinery.

280: Continues listing the contractors saying there were the MCIVOR BROTHERS who developed the RAMPARTS BLOCK.

289: Says other contract work was required, such as FENCING contractors. The first of these, he says were RODNEY and LAWRENCE KEAST until the former went into FARMING. Says LAWRENCE and himself formed a CONTRACT FENCING partnership in the early 1960s.

296: Other FENCERS, he says, included BOB LOTHIAN, AB SPAIN and DAVE WALKER, and adds that each development BLOCK had its own set of FENCERS to control the FARM STOCK.

305: Replies that when he returned from AUSTRALIA, he and his co-workers lived in a caravan which was towed around to each stage of the job. In winter he admits “it was bloody cold (laughs)”.

324: Food, he says, was supplied by CAMERON as part of the employment conditions adding that he and his workmates didn’t do much cooking in those days “a lot of saveloys and sausages (laughs)”.

335: At weekends, he says, they would head for TE ANAU on a SATURDAY night and being a teetotaller at that time, he inevitably became the driver for the rest of them after the pub sessions.

342: Affirms that it was in the days of “early closing” (restricted liquor licensing at pubs and hostelries) and mentions that TE ANAU did have a police officer to enforce the law, named TED DONNELLY.

353: Mentions his first vehicle was a MODEL-A FORD which he’d bought while working at THE PLAINS STATION. This, he continues, was upgraded by a new 1958 HILLMAN MINX which cost 800 pounds – equivalent to a year’s wages.

361: Recalls he bought a second runabout car – a MODEL-A COUPE – which he used around TE ANAU as all the roads (apart from the main TE ANAU-MOSSBURN highway) were still unsealed and in some cases, he says, the gravel surface included stones that were about 4inches in diameter.

380: Replies that before the 1950s, the permanent population of TE ANAU numbered up to 30 residents and as the LAND DEVELOPMENT and TOURISM initiatives got underway this figure increased with more workers descending on the town.

389: Lists some of the earlier inhabitants as the BURROWS, WILSON CAMPBELL, ROBBIE ROBB, the PLATOS, MCGREGORS, RADFORDS and later the SHELTONS, BEATTIES, ROBBIES, BEERS, MCIVORS and a few crib owners.

406: On the possibilities of meeting women in a town which in those days attracted a lot of male labour, he says the TE ANAU HOTEL employed quite a few women. “Probably 50% of the local lads round TE ANAU at that stage either finished up marrying somebody who worked as a waitress or a housemaid or whatever at the THC.” (The TOURIST HOTEL CORPORATION [THC] was a government body which owned and operated some of NEW ZEALAND’S more remote hotels in the 1950s and 1960s.)

412: Mentions that his first WIFE, MERNA DORE, from MOSGIEL (they married in 1960) worked at the HOTEL one season and that was where they met each other.

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010: States that he and MERNA rented a house in TE ANAU for the first year of their marriage. They then built their own house in WORSLEY ST (which was originally called MAORI ST).

026: The building costs of the brick house, he says, were about 2,800 pounds and the ¼ acre section cost 336 pounds. The builder, he adds, was KEITH GREER.

047: Referring to his decision to set up business as a FENCING CONTRACTOR, he says there was more money to be made in it than driving a TRACTOR.

054: Explains that he and his business partner were paid by the “chain” (about 20 metres) and got 35 shillings for every chain of FENCING they put up and they averaged about 20 chains a day.

072: At first, he says, they used the red beech POSTS before working with the TANNELISED POSTS.

080: Describes the process of putting up a chain of FENCING, which in those days, he says, included digging holes for the POSTS (POST DRIVERS, he adds, had not been introduced until after he’d given up the business).

095: Replies that the POSTS were supplied by LANDS & SURVEY who got the red beech locally (DALE BUSH) and the TANNELISED TIMBER came from sawmills.

123: After explaining that it replaced the beech because it was more durable (treated with a copper-based substance) and because native timber was no longer being cut down, he says, some of the old red beech posts are still standing.

139: Other FENCING CONTRACTORS also worked in the district but usually each kept to his own development block. Considers his was the easiest to work because the ground was better for digging posts into.

155: Names BOB LOTHIAN, DAVE WALKER, DOUG ALLEN and ALLAN CHALMERS, JIM MCGHIE, AB SPAIN and BILL HUMPHRIES as some of the other FENCING CONTRACTORS.

174: Says he started the business in 1959 and gave it up when he bought his own 240-acre FARM in 1965 at OTAPIRI behind the BASTION HILLS (EASTERN SOUTHLAND).

183: Replies that he and MERNA had three CHILDREN: GRANT, ANDREA and HAMISH.

195: States that when he bought the FARM it carried about 1000 SHEEP but a year later, there was a slump in the meat and wool market and the property became an uneconomic unit.

200: As a result, he continues, he took up FENCING work around the OTAPIRI area, working seven days a week from dawn till dusk and then on the FARM when he got home.

207: Recalls he paid about 72,000 pounds for the FARM minus the STOCK.

219: Mentions that he was not eligible for a BALLOT BLOCK on the LANDS & SURVEY SCHEME because he had not worked on a FARM for up to two years prior to submitting an application.

233: Participant’s microphone dislodges and is re-attached.

238: Despite the heavy workload at home, he says he still managed to visit TE ANAU on a regular basis to help out friends around the BASIN.

251: Of the first FARM MANAGERS appointed by LANDS & SURVEY to oversee the development BLOCKS, he recalls they included TOM SMITH at LYNWOOD, who was replaced by RAY NIGHTINGALE and the L&S FIELD OFFICER, GEORGE SINCLAIR.

271: Affirms that “black marketing” had become a problem as the SCHEME progressed, but says most of it occurred when he had left TE ANAU. Mentions he knew there was “a bit of pilfering going on of materials”. He later added DON MCDONALD and MERV HAYMAN.

296: Replies that he was on the FARM at OTAPIRI for about eight years during which time he was unsuccessful in trying to increase the acreage so he sold the property to neighbours, DOUG and WALLACE HARRINGTON.

312: About 1976, he says, he bought a 10-acre block of land at CENTRE BUSH on which their new house was built. While there, he says, the two younger children stayed on at OTAPIRI PRIMARY SCHOOL while GRANT attended LIMEHILLS PRIMARY.

333: By the time they were at HIGH SCHOOL in WINTON and INVERCARGILL, he says, the family had left CENTRE BUSH and moved to WINTON from where he worked for two different FARMERS.

344: It was while they were living at WINTON that the marriage dissolved and he got a job with FIORDLAND TRAVEL as a BUS DRIVER on the WILMOT PASS route to DOUBTFUL SOUND.

361: He held that job, he says, for about nine months before being employed as DECKHAND on the RENOWN (a vessel operated by the FIORDLAND NATIONAL PARK BOARD staff) based at DEEP COVE on DOUBTFUL SOUND.

372: Explains the job involved ordering stores from TE ANAU, preparing the vessel for seaworthiness, offering assistance to the passengers and cooking all the meals.

383: The average trip, he continues, took ten days and there would be five days off before he was back on board for the next trip. It usually travelled between MARTINS BAY and PUYSEGUR POINT and twice a year to STEWART ISLAND and SNARES ISLAND doing work for LANDS & SURVEY.

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007: Explains that the 63ft-long RENOWN had originally been built as a crayfishing vessel for use in the CHATHAM ISLANDS and was bought by the PARK BOARD in 1964 and was converted to provide accommodation.

022: Most of the FNP work was carried out by research scientists and some recovery work such as the cannons from the ENDEAVOUR (which sank in FACILE HARBOUR, DUSKY SOUND in the late 1700s).

054: Mentions that he used to do the actual recordings for some of the research work.

066: States he worked on that job as DECKHAND/RELIEVING SKIPPER for six years, adding that he gained his first SKIPPER’S LICENCE while working for FIORDLAND TRAVEL and upgraded it.

076: Considers it was easier to get the licence then compared with nowadays.

092: In 1983, he says, he remarried and decided then to spend more time ashore.

096: Replies that his second wife is named LONA (née FACOORY) and that she worked for FIORDLAND TRAVEL. Adds that she has two boys from a previous relationship.

119: His next job, he says, was with Z-BOATS (owned by ELECTRIC CORP) on LAKE MANAPOURI which transported passengers between MANAPOURI and the power station at WEST ARM.

128: Says the salary for nine months work was $30,000 which was better than at the FNP which was $24,000 for twelve months. Adds that the shift work at Z-BOATS meant he had more free time.

148: However, after about nine months there he moved back to the FNP in 1987, shortly after it had been amalgamated with other government agencies under one umbrella – the DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION.

189: Explains that he got taken on just before DOC was restructured. Most of the TE ANAU staff, he says, was assigned to work on the KEPLER TRACK which had been begun under a PEP SCHEME – in other words a “work for the dole (benefit) scheme”.

221: Says there was a mini-digger which dug up the surface of the track which they then covered with gravel. The other staff working on it included TONY CRIBB, RICK and DEAN HENDERSON, RICK HANSEN, JIM STARK (the foreman), SIMON TROTTER, DAVID COOK, MAX DAVIES and JOHN CLARK, while ROSS KERR was the RANGER-in-CHARGE.

241: Recalls the first job he ever did for the PARK was in 1961 when he helped to build the GLAISNOCK HUT (in the area of land by the NORTH FIORD on LAKE TE ANAU). The job, he says took about a month and the materials were transported across on the TAWERA.

251: Mentions he also helped build the original HIDDEN FALLS HUT (HOLLYFORD VALLEY) about 1962/63 adding that the materials were brought in by light aircraft (RITCHIE AIR SERVICES).

256: The windows and frames, he goes on, were brought in by MURRAY GUNN’S packhorses.

[MURRAY GUNN is the son of DAVID GUNN, former runholder of the HOLLYFORD and MARTINS BAY RUNS and pioneering tour guide through the HOLLYFORD. Following DAVID GUNN’S accidental death in 1955, MURRAY, took over the tourism venture, continuing to use packhorses through the VALLEY to MARTINS BAY, until they were banned by the PARK BOARD. MURRAY also established a small museum at the holiday campsite which was a former roadworkers accommodation site. It continues to operate as GUNN’S CAMP, although illness has forced MURRAY to leave the area and move to TE ANAU. The tourism venture is currently in the hands of the HOLLYFORD TRUST.]

264: Remembers he also assisted in putting up the CLINTON FORKS HUT on the MILFORD TRACK after the original was too small.

268: Between the two decades, he replies, the style of HUT had changed, mostly they were bigger. Also with the later HUTS, he says, much of the work had been “pre-fabbed” (ready made in the workshop at TE ANAU).

284: With the earlier ones, he adds, the TIMBER would have been cut to size before it went up the lake but it all still had to be assembled on site.

291: Mentions that TREVOR CARLTON (one of the aforementioned POSTCUTTERS) was also on the construction team for the 1961 HIDDEN FALLS HUT and that the FNP RANGER, HAROLD JACOBS, was a trained boat builder. Also mentions COLIN BUCKLEY who was a builder by trade.

295: Those on the GLAISNOCK HUT he names as SANDY BROWN (builder), ZIGG KEPKA – a former guide and FOREST SERVICE worker who was also a trained builder.

306: Replies that when he and LONA married, they first lived in a FOREST SERVICE house (provided to LONA who was working for the department at that time) on MILFORD ROAD.

313: They moved into a flat in HENRY ST, he continues, before eventually buying their own home in BLIGH ST where they lived for a couple of years until they left the town in 1998 for TIMARU followed by CHRISTCHURCH where they now live.

324: Explains that he resigned from DOC on health grounds.

334: Reflects that the growth of the area due to the government’s land development scheme created the biggest change to the TE ANAU BASIN.

336: In more recent years, he considers the greatest contributor to growth and change has been tourism.

351: Replies that land development has always been subject to cost and that if a FARMER cannot afford to do it then it is not done. “I don’t think there would’ve been a fraction of the land development done if the LANDS & SURVEY hadn’t taken over the leases of those places.”

370: While working for the FNP and later DOC, he sometimes travelled by aircraft into the PARK and replies that they were taken by FLOATPLANE into some of the fiords when he worked on the RENOWN. “Always exciting.”

385: Describes one journey from DUSKY SOUND when the cloud level was very low so that they were following the coastline under the clouds and only about 50ft above the water.

400: After further description of the circuitous route taken around the southwest corner, says eventually the pilot was able to climb back up and over LAKE POTERITERI, MONOWAI and back to TE ANAU which was two and a half hours longer than the direct flight from DUSKY.

411: Recalls the airstrip in TE ANAU (at the back of the present day MEDICAL CENTRE) which was built in the 1950s and says he often took flights to and from there.

Tape 3 Side A stops

Interview ends