Site hosted by AA Travel

"When dusk starts to climb up the ridges at night,
To massage the mountains to sleep,
It's often I think of time and the days,
When we mustered the back runs for sheep.
And tonight around the Tailings and Blue Duck, I know
That another ghost walks the hillside
To join in that last phantom muster of all,
The last of the mule train has died."
from 'Old Nero -died at 42' by Blue Jeans

Farming in the Early days

Sheep Farming preceded gold mining in the district by about a decade. The early rushes were responsible for a dramatic increase in population and a change in economic balance from the North to the South Island. The rushes occurred at a time when much of the South Island seemed likely to remain divided into vast sheep runs controlled by absentee capitalists and a squatter aristocracy. The clash of interests between miner and squatter determined the "dissolution of large estates, replaced by small landowners, many of them former miners". Run holders were compensated for their leases being declared goldfields. As the gold returns decreased into the 1870s and 1880s the miners left and sheep farmers remained. In some cases miners water races were used as irrigation channels to establish crops in certain areas.

The Syndicates

The 'Mt Ida Syndicate' was formed in 1896 by the Naseby families of Hore, Scott, and Inder, taking out a pastoral lease on tussock high country on the Ida and Hawdun ranges. After suffering a series of dry years the local farmers jointly sought a pastoral Crown lease ( 8400ha of the Mt Buster ) to supplement their own individual home farms on the Maniototo Plain below. Four generations on these three families still manage this syndicate today with two other shareholders.

In 1919, after world war 1, and as part of the soldiers settlement, the 'Soldiers Syndicate' was formed by cutting off just over 8000ha from Kyeburn Station. Like the Mt Ida Syndicate, this was initially jointly operated by six shareholders (Strodes, Crutchleys, McMillans, Geddes, Steels, and Smiths), to give their lower blocks a spell in the summer. Since then Soldiers Syndicate and the Mt Ida share the casual musters and packers by working in with one another. Mustering was a career in the old days; a musterer would spend six months going from station to station. Each day on the muster two sheep are killed. Wives of the men pack plum puddings which make for dessert along with tinned fruit.

Ron Hore recalls his fathers first muster:
"The sheep were mustered along with Kyeburn Stations mob. The full muster took three or four weeks, all on foot in those early days, and living in tents. The staple rations were bread, bully beef, and golden syrup. On my grandfather's first and only muster he became separated from the other musterers, and spent the night sheltering under a rock, most of it walking around to avoid "snow sickness" ( hypothermia). At daylight he found his bearings and made his way to the Syndicate camp. From that time on my father took his place on the muster. My father left school at thirteen years of age, packed his swag and joined the musterers gang. The twice yearly muster began along the lower slopes of the Ida Range. Kyeburn Station in those days ran along the foothills of the Ida Range from above Naseby to Dansey Pass. These sheep were gathered together and taken over to Tailings Creek, and the sheep from the Soldiers and Mt Ida Syndicates were brought in to join the mob there. The whole mob was then driven down to the holding paddock at the old musterers huts at the foot of the Buster. The musterers then trekked up to The Cone area at the back of Mt Kyeburn, to be ready for an early start to gather the sheep in from there and up as far as Dansey Pass. From there they were taken down to the Dansey Pass Hotel. Eventually the whole mob was taken driven to a holding pen at Shortland Station, where they were drafted to the various owners. The biggest mob brought out counted out at 35,000 sheep. "

Ron's father Frank Hore saw Keas attacking sheep. "A Kea would land on the sheeps back and screech until it either dropped exhausted or ran over a bluff. The Kea would then rip the wool off and reach the fat around the sheeps kidneys".

For the first 38 years they had only a bell tent packed with them for shelter during the musters. Tailings Creek hut was built in 1924 on the boundary with Kyeburn Station. In 1934 a bridge was built over Otematata and the huts for Chimney Gully (They rolled a sheet of corrugated iron on the end of the hut to make a chimney and thus got it's name.), Wire Yards, and Boundary camps were packed in from the Home Hills Station over the Hawkdun Range. Boundary Creek separates the Soldiers Syndicate and the Access block to the Mt Ida Syndicate.
One year the Soldiers Syndicate, who camped up on one of their sites in a tent each muster, suffered cold so bad they couldn't get their boots on one morning. For years and years they said "we're going to build a hut". And when they eventually did, they named it 'Long Promise'.
The huts were pre-cut and the corrugated iron rolled into bundles. Two men trekked back and forth working the mule train. Mules are used on the muster to carry provisions and over the years have become infamous and valued accomplices. Living to an old age ('Nero' lived to age 42) the mules gained a rare respect and admiration from the hillmen for their courage and dependability.
The Muster is led by the Syndicate Boss. There are usually nine musters and a cook whose job is to also look after the pack horses. With them come their 60 dogs, and until recent times, the mule train of six mules. .(Sally, Sergeant, Nero, Jean, Monty, and Bluey, an later her daughters both named little blue)

Laurie Inder recalls- " I saw Jess Stringer hunt his great bitch "Bess" from Cape Horn to Buster road down through the Buster Gorge to slew a mob on the Kyeburn-Glenshee boundary fence. She brought them down nearly half a mile, only to lose them through a hole in the fence. At my estimate it was 1500ft down into the Gorge and nearly two and a half miles distant. To have a dof that would run and work at that distance is every musterers dream."

Over the years the love and respect for the Syndicates has been passed on to sons and grandsons. It was the dream of each musterer as a boy to be allowed to go out with the sheep.

Ron Hore - "On the muster of November 1946 we mustered up from 'Chimney Gully' to the 'Wire Yards' and got caught in a snow storm, forcing us to abandon the muster for the day and lock down at 'Wire Yards hut'. The storm grew in intensity until we could not carry on for the next three or four days. But concern was for the few sheep we had got on the first days muster. In November we never got many sheep on that outside muster as in the winter they tended to keep to the lower altitudes. We were also concerned about our horses and the mule train, how they would be able to stand the blizzard. On the evening of the second or third day we went out to see how the animals were faring. There was no sign of the sheep., they were completely buried. The only evidence of where they were was when one of us tripped over the horns of a half-bred wether. We pulled him out and the snow was driven right into his hide, he was just like a solid block. The horses were a sorry sight. We tried to get them out of the yard and down to shelter, but they were too stupid in the cold conditions. The mules, who were never covered out there, literally ate the canvas off the hack's covers. There was nothing for them to eat the snow was so deep. They had eaten all the snow tussock they could get and then started on the horses covers. One horse, and it happened to be mine, tried to move to shelter. The fences were drifted over and the snow was packed so hard that they could walk right over the top of the fence. But crossing the fence my horse trod on tussock where the snow was softer, and his foot went down and got caught in the wire, and to my great disappointment my poor old horse was dead - he had died in the storm. When Jack Inder, Doug and I were going up to investigate the stock I said to one of them 'Are you still there?' because the blizzard was so intense we could not see each other, even walking three abreast. When we got back to the hut we plugged up all the eaves around the corrugated iron with newspaper and tussock. We thought we had it completely shut out. In the morning to our dismay there was one or two inches of snow over our beds. We were in camp for about four days and when it lifted we decide to abandon the muster of the Mt Ida Spurs and we shifted down to boundary camp. To our great surprise there was not one bit of snow down there. We thought the whole world had snowed in, but there was no snow at Boundary -but the ground was frozen solid. When we went back ( to Wire Yards) the following muster (April) there was no sign of those sheep - they had not died and had got out."

Weather conditions have been so cold at times on a muster it could take up to 4 hours to boil a billy!

The road to Tailings Creek was made in 1965, making access for the mule train and horses better, and also allowed vehicles some access. Bill Scott writes: "It's no doubt that the biggest change I have seen over fifty years is the use of vehicles and having good tracks to all the huts. It means that every undertaking is so much easier now. "

In 1975 the Mt Ida Syndicate bought the old Mt Ida Railway station and somehow got it up to Wire Yards. They called it Inder's Castle after muster Boss Laurie Inder's family. Lin McKenzie writes "It took a week on the transporter with bulldozers fore and aft, and they waited three days at the Otematata crossing for the norwester to drop before tackling the Otematata face. "

Old stockyards, sheep dips, archaeological remains of woolsheds, musterers' huts, old fence lines, rabbit fences dating back to the 1860s feature all through the Maniototo. There are also important Maori sites - ovens, hunting camps, rock art, moa hunting and burial sites.

Sadly, today the government is taking back the high country runs, and the mustering beats such as those carried out by the Syndicates may soon come to an end. And with it the loss of an iconic part of our history. The life the forefathers have lived on these runs has forged the unique character of the people in these parts. Long may the legacy of these great horseman and musterers live on in their families and friends.

< Back