Fundraiser a giant step into history

PLENTY TO SEE: Edward Beetham, fourth-generation Beetham family member, in the tack room of the stables at Brancepeth where a tour will run next month as a fundraiser for Wainuioru School and community. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

The rare and curious history of the Brancepeth homestead in Wairarapa will be revealed on a public tour.

The Wainuioru School and Community Association fundraising garden tour of the station and the gardens of nearby Te Parae and Morland will be held on October 19 and WSCA president Nadine Dunbar says tickets are selling fast.

The three historic homes share historic links and were once part of the Williams-Beetham partnership, which created one of the largest sheep stations in New Zealand comprising 31,000ha, 300 staff and 100 permanent residents, a grand stable, library, school, store, and cookhouse.

Brancepeth Station was once an economic engine for Wairarapa that had turned 400 grazing merinos in 1856 to 100,000 sheep through its woolsheds by the turn of the century.

Brancepeth became one of the largest sheep stations the nation had ever seen and was today listed by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust as a category 1 historic place.

Included in the Rare and Curious Tour will be a visit to the whare built by the Beetham brothers Richmond, William and George in 1856 in which they lived while the homestead was built. Fourth generation family member Edward Beetham says there will be 20 points of interest marked out around the Brancepeth garden, outbuildings and stables. This includes the whare and the office where the Williams-Beetham farming partnership was run from. The partnership comprised the brothers and their brother-in-law, Thomas Coldham Williams, who married their eldest sister Annie.

Lydia Wevers, the author of the book Reading on the Farm about the partnership office clerk and the Brancepeth library, will be on hand during the tour.

Mr Beetham says scattered around Brancepeth and also Te Parae and Morland will be people full of information about the properties and guiding the visitors.

Parts of the tour will include seeing the original buildings, garden talks, a country plant sale and places to relax and indulge in some homemade goodies and refreshments.

There were also a number of trees in the garden that are in the process of being added to the Notable Tree Register.

The tour will raise funds for the Wainuioru School and community, such as the defibrillator cabinet for use by school and community that was purchased through an earlier fundraiser.

Mrs Dunbar said the idea for the garden tour "came from knowing that the Wainuioru community had three amazing historic homes with beautiful gardens".

Refreshments and treats will be available at the Wainuioru Community Hall and at the tour houses with many of the items made by school and community families.

The organisation of the tour has taken months with WSCA members "putting in many hours".

Mrs Dunbar said the group were "very lucky to have the backing of strong school and community families".

Tickets for the tour on October 19 cost $30 each and are available from www.eventfinder.co.nz, Property Brokers Ltd, Hedleys Bookshop Masterton and from Angela Irving at Te Parae.