Woolsheds

Kawarau – 1860’s – Anderson’s, Central Otago

This is a book extract from Woolsheds: The historic shearing sheds of Aotearoa New Zealand by Annette O’Sullivan and Jane Ussher.

At its peak Kawarau ran to a massive 85,000hectares (210,000 acres) of high country, its boundaries extending from halfway down the Cromwell Gorge to Boundary Creek (between Gibbston and Frankton) and in the south taking in the Carrick and Cairnmuir ranges, the Nevis Valley and part of the Old Man Range.

At this size it was one of the ‘big five’ stations in Central Otago, the others being Earnscleugh, Morven Hills, Moutere and Galloway stations. ‘Kawarau’ means channel between rocks, and the station is named after the deep, fast flowing Kawarau river that runs on its northern boundary. In the early years the station was isolated, and until a suspension bridge was built across the Kawarau River in 1880, linking it to Cromwell supplies were brought in by pack horse from Clyde over the Cairnmuir Mountains.

Before the station was broken up in 1910, following the land reforms of the Liberal government, which the Australian and New Zealand Land Company had fought, there were two woolsheds on the property. The shed at Gibbston has now been converted into a wine tasting venue but the homestead and woolshed in the Bannockburn valley alongside Shepherds Creek, both built in the early 1860s, are still in use.

Timber was scarce and so both the rambling homestead and the Category 1 historic woolshed were built mostly of local schist.

Long and low, and built on two levels to follow the contour of the slight gradient on which it sits, the woolshed’s shallow-pitched roof is clad in the original iron — in an an environment as dry as this, rust is not a worry. The oldest, upper level of the woolshed was initially built as a 20-stand blade shearing shed, with 10 stands on each side of the outer walls. By 1867 it was reported that 16 blade shearers were shearing 36,000 sheep at Kawarau. In the years that followed, the number increased to 70,000 sheep. A machine shearing plant was installed in 1935 and the shearing stands were reduced to only three on one side.

This was later added to, making up the five stands on the left side of the shed today.

The exterior schist stones are stacked and mortared, and the inside walls are lined with mud and coated with whitewash. They are etched with the names of past shearers and others; Among them is the name of the station manager from the late 1800s, Frank Corson. Timeworn wooden double doors open into the wool room at the top end, where parts of the whitewashed walls have worn to reveal the stones beneath. In areas in contact with sheep the stones have been polished from the lanolin of their wool. The grated flooring is made up of removable sections that sit on low stone walls under the shed, which form the foundations. They can be lifted to clear the accumulated sheep manure.

When the lower building was constructed in 1890, it created additional space for sheep — the pens could now hold 1100 — and for horses, when a stable was installed in early 1900.

The homestead with its thick stone and compacted-mud walls was initially three separate buildings, which were joined together in the early 1900s. The schist section of the house was once the men’s quarters, where farm workers stayed, and there was a bakehouse and store. There was once little or no fencing at Kawarau and farm workers lived in outlying huts to oversee stock. One of the station’s remote schist stone huts used by shepherds, musterers and rabbiters is named Honeymoon Hut for the newly married couple who once stayed there. 50 shearers were also employed as rabbiters to try to control the growing rabbit population.

The serious infestation of the early 1880s reduced feed for sheep and caused a dramatic reduction in productivity.

In 1884, the rabbiters’ tally was recorded as 244,000 rabbit skins and a year later there were 283,000. Skins were dried and sent to London for sale. At the peak of operations up to 50 rabbiters were working on the station. In 1910 Kawarau Station was reduced to 4800 hectares (11,900 acres), including the land around the homestead and woolshed, but the station name was retained. After 1910 the property changed hands three times before it was bought by John Anderson in 1927. It has remained in the Anderson family ever since.

Woolsheds: The historic shearing sheds of Aotearoa New Zealand by Annette O’Sullivan and Jane Ussher, $85 RRP, Massey University Press.