Grant Vickers, of Waikouaiti, hopes to have a replica Cobb & Co wagon completed. Photo: Ella Stokes
Grant Vickers, of Waikouaiti, hopes to have a replica Cobb & Co wagon completed. Photo: Ella Stokes
A retired farmer is turning his passion for tradition into something for the community.
Grant Vickers, who lives in Waikouaiti, has many ties to farming and machinery.
He was a dairy farmer in Taranaki before moving to South Westland, where he farmed in the Waitaha Valley as well as being involved with contracting.
In 2000 he moved to Timaru where he managed a machinery retailer and for the past six years he had worked as a salesman selling robotic milking equipment.
''I enjoyed working with people. When you're farming you can sometimes end up working alone a lot.''
Mr Vickers retired this year and has been ''getting a bit bored'', so when his friend showed him a half-finished stagecoach he had an idea.
Last year, Waikouaiti Coast Heritage Centre chairman Bill Lang was commissioned to produce a replica coach for display at Dunedin's new Cobb & Co restaurant, but the commission was cancelled when the project was about 80 per cent complete.
Mr Vickers' goal is for the centre to buy the coach, complete it and mount it for the Coast Heritage Centre building in Waikouaiti.
The Tauranga District Museum replica Cobb and Co. stagecoach pictured in 1985 in the Bay of Plenty Times. Photo / File
''It would just be a masterpiece.''
He said Waikouaiti had a close association with Cobb & Co stagecoaches because there had been a regular service between the township and Dunedin.
The coaches were the primary means of passenger transport in the Otago region until 1923, when the last service ceased.
None of the Otago stagecoaches survived.
However, in order for Mr Vickers' wish to come to true, the committee needed to raise $40,000.
Mr Vickers said he was passionate about history and that was why he wanted to see the stage coach completed and not wasted.
''I grew up in Taranaki and we had draught horses on the farm and were some of the very last people to do agriculture with horses ... so it's very special to me.
''I really hope people can get behind this and support it as it will give those driving into Dunedin a landmark to look at, like many other towns and cities have.''
Mr Vickers said he wanted to be able to use his farming and machinery skills.
He had set up a Givealittle page and hoped Otago would get behind it.
