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Before it was divided up, Mangaone Station was one of the largest in the North Island - stretching from near Wairoa to the Ureweras. Now retired, one-time manager Russell Baty and his wife Dolores give Jack Perkins a 4wd tour of the property and recall their former way of life.
The Batys remember the farm’s landscape from their early days of arrival as one of rough scrub, narrow logging tracks and multiple gates with mobs of sheep, cattle, pigs and deer. Dolores says the farm was the perfect environment for their growing family, the eldest of their children being six when they first arrived in 1966.
The couple had eight children in total and the first farm farm they visit on this trip with Perkins is one of four the property has now been divided into. Russell describes how they used to hunt cattle and pigs on horseback, clear the scrub with bullocks, fire and cows.
They hired Fijiian Indian teams of workers and who used to camp-out on the land. They describe an Irishman, called Paddy [Guinane] who used to repeatedly work for three months, drink through his wages for weeks and then start work and repeat the process all over again.
The Baty’s talk fondly of “an old Māori” named Ben who upon seeking work insisted that he would sleep in a hole in the bank until Russell had built his house. They recall a few stories about Ben including how Russell discovered he’d been adding poisonous toadstools to his casseroles which uncovered why Ben had been unwell for three years.
A wealthy man, who owned his own farm in Tikitiki, Ben offered to leave it to Russell for saving his life. They refer to him as a kind old man and “hard case”. The Baty’s take Perkins to a whare used by loggers where night lights are now powered by vehicle batteries replacing the dependency on candles and water is sourced from the bush and stored in cans. They describe their memories of a plastic swimming pool, wild cattle and shooting eels in the lagoon.
The next stop is a new wool shed built from timber which was pit sawn in a river paddock nearby. Russell recalls there used to be 15,000 sheep in one mob driven by five shepherds, with his guys “on the wing” the mob would stretch out over four miles.Russell describes how he fired one shearing gang working on contract because of their shoddy work but the the gang refused to move out. Their boss, Robbie Cooper arrived from Gisborne and shifted them out, leaving a new gang in their place.
Russell explains they were busy times docking, dipping and culling. Dolores says she loved the early starts and making smoko and lunches for the gang which often involved boiling up the billy, eating lambs’ tails and mountain oysters.
Russell explains a stock check would take a whole day. He recalls a couple of incidents where hundreds of wethers and ewes were smothered to death because of bad shepherdry, how they had to dispose of the carcasses and write “a big explanation to the Lands and Surveys Department” as to how it happened.
Russell describes what they used to do at weekends for fun including running weaner cattle on the flats on foot, so they could catch and ride them for fun.
The Baty’s show Perkins their original homestead from 1966 which is now inhabited by Carmel Hurdle. Dolores fondly remembers the blackberry scrub, their pet deer and dairy cow and how the children were kept busy clearing the property of weeds. She also recalls how her children aged six or seven at the time would go eeling at night.
With no car to hand, Dolores explains how her sons taught her to drive in the farm van by driving down to the wool shed and back repeatedly, however after passing her test they laugh that she had thirteen ‘prangs’ in her first year legally behind the wheel.