Totara Estate

Totara Estate, a short distance south of Oamaru, was in the 19th century a grand property of 15,000 acres. They ran sheep and cattle, and grew large quantities of grain. Totara Estate even had its own flour mill, which thanks to a team of volunteers is still in running order. The estate has a special place in New Zealand history as the birthplace of the country’s frozen meat industry in 1882.

Before the 1880s, although wool was being sent overseas there was no way of exporting mutton, and any that could not be consumed locally was more or less a waste product. Countries like Argentina and Australia had begun sending refrigerated cargo to Europe, but New Zealand was more distant from the markets, and getting meat to the other side of the world in an edible condition would be a huge challenge.

The New Zealand and Australian Land Company built a slaughterhouse at Totara Estate, and several hundred animals a day were processed by the six butchers at work. The thousands of carcasses were taken by horse and cart to the estate’s railway siding, where they were packed in wagons with ice buckets and transported to Port Chalmers, where a steam-powered freezing plant had been installed aboard the sailing ship Dunedin.

There was a setback when the plant failed after processing 600 carcasses, which meant the remainder of the cargo had to be sold locally or disposed of, but the plant was repaired and a further 5,000 carcasses were frozen over a period of two months. The ship set sail on 15  February 1882, and when it arrived in London three months later all but one of the carcasses was in excellent condition. This marked the beginning of what would eventually become a multi-billion dollar industry for New Zealand.

Less often mentioned is that this 1882 sailing of the Dunedin also carried the first shipment of frozen butter from New Zealand, the beginning of an export trade that would have such huge significance for the real-life counterparts of farmers like my Frank.

Sailing ship “Dunedin” leaving Port Chalmers Heads in February 1882. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.

Today Totara Estate is owned by Heritage New Zealand, and is a pleasant place to visit, with its old farm buildings and machinery set in attractive countryside, and sheep from a variety of old breeds that would have been on the farm in the 19th century. We took the opportunity to visit the estate again there again while in Oamaru last month for the Victorian Heritage Festival.

Totara Estate Totara Estate

For the festival, Totara put on a special day, with a blade shearer at work shearing sheep just as in the pre-electricity days, and a group of swaggers gathered around a fire. We sat on hay bales and listened to them telling yarns and singing songs as they waited for their billy tea to boil.

The group, transported from the middle of the 19th century specially for the occasion, included a man who was a celebrity in his day, Ned “The Shiner” Slattery. Here he is on the right, holding forth with one of his yarns:

Swagmen

Tales of The Shiner grew in the telling, just as the ones he told did. But he was a real, historical figure, and a frequent visitor to Totara Estate for many years.

Afterwards a hearty afternoon tea of the rib-sticking variety that would once have been common at such farms, complete with the billy tea brewed for us by the swagmen, was served at long tables in one of the old buildings before it was time to say farewell to Totara Estate for this visit.

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5 Comments


  1. I enjoyed this. You mention a company, The New Zealand and Australian Land Company which operated a factory. Did this build family fortunes? Was it stock issued and widely held? Did you have a metropolitan social experience similar to our Gilded Age?

    I’ve come to recently read of a Long Island colonial family that settled New Amsterdam, later New York and were by our revolt a family trading company. London, New York, Bombay, offices. A London cousin captained a British vessel of war against Napoleon, Charter member of Trinity House, migrated to Tasmania, but stopped over at Brazil during their revolution. Lawrence was a confidant of Jeremy Bentham.The Brazilian’s achieved their success on their own with abolition early. The Brazilian Constitution is among the earliest with many enlightened ideals. His daughter married a man who was, according to the British Army, Wellington’s Aide de Camp. He may have thought so, but everything I read inclines me to suspect Wellington never thought so. Or was that only in his last years?

    I enjoy all the characters you introduce of local legend. Old traditions and celebrations are done by locals, here, too. Thank you.

    Reply

    1. Very interesting, Charles!

      Here’s some info about this company: http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/1966/land-companies/page-2 I’ll freely admit I don’t have in-depth knowledge of these land companies, as my particular interest is in the smaller, family-owned dairy farms more typical of the North Island.

      While we did have some wealthy urban families, notably in the liquor industry, we didn’t have an equivalent of the vast wealth created by holdings in railway or oil. Some of the sheep stations were huge (by NZ standards), and generated great wealth for the families who owned them. The Government of the 1890s had a policy of breaking up these large estates to allow for closer settlement. More on this: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/cheviot-estate-taken-over-by-government

      Reply

  2. Thank you for the links and insight. Fairness seems a NZ attitude, early.

    There is a drumbeat here, now, of superiority of social alignment with wealth. A madness.

    I mention the family previous as American, one branch of whom returned to London and served the Crown and then desired the honours there. Grants of land by the Crown, in Tasmania, the governor there thought unreasonable and tried to revoke. The wealthy made their own rules.

    The eldest sons and daughters of the Gilded Age here, had historians, with archivists and librarians, compile histories of their early colonial 1608-1700 origins. Most every book holds some lost accounts of long forgotten incidents and anecdotes of local history. Some stories are timeless.

    My interest of your families is they most represent an outlook and attitude with most of mine. The timeframe of settlement on new land we share, there are no buildings of centuries, here. We too celebrate new traditions.

    Reply

  3. Hello, Shayne! I am thoroughly enjoying reading your books and soon will start Daisy’s War. I went to your website to make sure I am reading them in order and have enjoyed reading your posts. I was surprised to see a reference to an Edmond Slattery in your story about Totara Estate. My great grandfather was another Edmund Slattery, who settled in South Dakota, USA, and whose grandparents had emigrated to Iowa in the USA, from County Clare. He fathered 18 children, of which only 13 lived. The youngest died last December at the age of 91. I’m just curious…..is “The Shiner” a well known character in NZ?

    And another interesting bit, our daughter, Amy Smith, spent several weeks hiking NZ last February and March, fell in love with the country and would love to return someday. For now, she is back in Minnesota and writing a book about transitions in the workplace. She wrote a blog while traveling.
    Here’s the link: https://aasmith1.wordpress.com/

    Reply

    1. Hi, Kay, nice to see you here! Yes, the Shiner is quite well-known here, at least among history buffs.

      Great to hear that your daughter loved her time here – and what a lovely name she has. 🙂 She has some great photos, too.

      Reply

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