An early view of the homestead, sheds and huts looking westward.
An early view of the homestead, sheds and huts looking westward.
The Legend of Mt White Station
by Gerald Sandrey,
Mary Egan Publishing, $60
The diverse and desolate country that makes up Mt White Station has held an irresistible allure for men for decades. Many have committed themselves to the extreme weather and isolation of the place only to finally admit defeat, while others have endured, raising families and forming bonds with their fellow station workers and the land itself.
The Turnbull family, who live 200km away from the station, have owned Mt White for almost 100 years. The key to their success has no doubt been the careful appointment of skilled managers made of the right stuff to handle this volatile and isolated terrain. They've never had to advertise for staff; Mt White station's isolation, mystique and sheer size have drawn musterers since 1858.
David Clarkson Turnbull bought Mt White Station in 1924.
Gerald Sandrey was raised on a South Canterbury farm and, as well as being as a journalist, has spent his life working on the land. After assisting with a few small fencing projects on Mt White, he became fascinated by the station and jumped at the opportunity to write its history. Following is an extract from his book:
New family takes over Lochinvar, Mt White and Riversdale
When the lease held by Studholme and McAlpine for Lochinvar expired in 1917, the run was unoccupied for a few years. Uncertainty generated by the war meant it was difficult to attract interest in the isolated block.
Eventually former police sergeant James O'Malley (1847-1930), who was one of the most well-known owners of the Bealey Hotel further up the Waimakariri basin, 12km from Arthur's Pass, took up the Lochinvar lease. O'Malley was to run some cattle up the Esk Valley but the isolation, inaccessibility and sheer scale of the block soon dimmed his enthusiasm.
In 1920 the lease of Lochinvar passed on to Arthur (Ronald) Turnbull (1889-1975), who farmed the downlands property 'Bingley' near Amberley in North Canterbury. Ronald Turnbull was to run both sheep and cattle on Lochinvar, which when he took up the lease grazed about 1000 'pretty mongrel' sheep. David McLeod later recalled Turnbull as a competent farmer and excellent stockman who worked hard to improve quality.
Turnbull scaled back his sheep numbers and steadily built his cattle herd on Lochinvar. Turnbull initially rode into Lochinvar by the shortest route from Amberley. This was up through the Devil's Den (currently part of the Nina/Doubtful Rivers Conservation Area in North Canterbury) and over the Puketeraki Range to the east of the Esk Valley. This was a long and difficult ride.
With no buildings on the property Turnbull initially camped in a tent. He periodically took with him a worker named Hungerford (after whom Hungerford Stream in the vicinity is named) to help with a variety of jobs. Around this time in the early 1920s Turnbull also employed Ashley Lewis, from India.
Lewis came out to New Zealand with Sir John Cracroft Wilson, dubbed the 'Nabob', who had left India for a second time after the famous Indian rebellion of 1857. Cracroft Wilson, of course, had been a part owner of Lochinvar many years earlier.
There is a suggestion that Lewis had worked as a boundary keeper between Mt White and Lochinvar. Lewis was purported to have lived in the first hut in the bush at the foot of Nigger Hill, the name of which some have suggested could well be a derogatory reference to Lewis' Indian ethnicity.
However, the derivation of the names 'Nigger Hill' and 'Nigger Stream' have also been attributed, in an equally derogatory manner, to the appearance of the tussock grass Carex secta which grows in the vicinity and which was burnt by the early pastoral occupiers.
Turnbull built a comfortable four-roomed cottage at the base of Nigger Hill, which is Lochinvar's closest point to any outside contact, around 18km beyond the Mt White homestead.
A small bunkroom to accommodate musterers, a stable and a shed were also built at this time. Acland suggests these buildings were possibly the last in Canterbury to be built with pit-sawn timber drawn from the nearby bush.
When the house was ready, Turnbull appointed as his manager one of the most legendary people to have worked the Canterbury high country. Jim Thompson continued to be associated with Lochinvar when, from 1924 onwards, it was managed along with the Mt White and Riversdale runs as one unit.
