Move over, Shrek: farmer tells his side of story

Dave Cannan reviews Dust to Gold.

DUST TO GOLD
John Perriam (with Robin Major)
Random House, $49, pbk

Fate sometimes has a lot to answer for. Like the day - I believe it was Wednesday, April 28, 2004 - when, as chief reporter, I was part way through a visit to this newspaper's regional offices, I took a call from Dunedin.

There had been, I was told, an outbreak of "reporter illness" in our Alexandra and Wanaka offices and (pause) how did I feel about covering the big news event of the day myself, the live, televised shearing of Shrek, at Cromwell's Golden Gate Lodge that night?

It's a braver man than I who tells his editor where he can stick his bright ideas and thus, a few hours later, joined by chief photographer Stephen Jaquiery, I found myself part of the media melee outside the hotel, barely believing my return to general reporting ranks was to cover the de-fleecing of an old merino straggler.

And my disbelief only deepened when I stood in the car park and watched as John Perriam opened the back of his 4WD, muttered "C'mon Shrek" and this woolly mammoth jumped out and trotted obediently behind his owner into the hotel, completely unfazed by the glare of television lights, camera flashes and a noisy crowd of onlookers.

I can still see the look on the face of photographer Simon Baker, an old Christchurch Star colleague, as he lowered his camera and looked me straight in the eye. "Come on Dave, you can tell me, mate. It's a jack-up, right?" he said.

Up to that point I'd had no reason to doubt anything about a story which the ODT had first flashed across the front page of its Saturday edition 11 days earlier. At the time, I'd been on an Easter holiday break from the CR's desk but understood there had been some debate in the office about whether the story should go on page one or not. Common news sense had prevailed.

The combination of a heart-warming story about a hermit sheep encased in a massive six-year-old fleece and a stunning Jaquiery photograph of Shrek draped around the shoulders of Bendigo musterer Daniel "Cage Fighter" Devine had prevailed, and the sheep's celebrity status was sealed.

But now Baker's question about the authenticity of what we had just seen, and were about to see more of, being beamed live around the world to several television networks, sparked a mild panic attack - what if this was some elaborate high country hoax or practical joke?

Quick chats with both Perriam and Devine soon dispelled those fears and, about 10pm, with deadline alarm bells ringing in my ears, I sat down at my laptop and wrote: "A man shore a sheep in Cromwell last night and the whole world watched."

The next day, on page one of the ODT, that story carried the headline "World stops as Shrek fleeced" plus a kicker "Wily old wether transformed into stage performer". I'd never written a story like it before, in 40 years of journalism, and I'll bet good money the ODT has never carried a lead story like it in 150 years.

Fast-forward to November 28, 2006, and again, somehow, I'm back on Shrek-watch, only this time I don't get to watch him being shorn, thank goodness, because Perriam, with some help from Jaquiery and Helicopters Otago, decided it should be done on an iceberg about 90km off the Otago coastline.

As publicity stunts go, I think this one is unlikely to be surpassed, nor will I ever get to write another intro like "A man sheared a sheep on an iceberg yesterday - and no, I'm not making this up".

All of which brings me to what seemed inevitable from the moment I witnessed the world's media going barmy over the story of Shrek that cold night in Cromwell more than five years ago - that someone, one day, was going to write a book about the world's most famous sheep.

Well, now John Perriam has but, astutely, it's not just about Shrek, Perriam wisely widening his focus to incorporate the 100-year history of the imposing, 12,000ha Bendigo Station in Central Otago, which he has co-owned and farmed since 1979.