Tenure review completed

Pictured recently in the garden of Mount Aspiring Station homestead are (from left) John and Sue...
Pictured recently in the garden of Mount Aspiring Station homestead are (from left) John and Sue Aspinall, and son Randall and daughter-in-law Allison Aspinall. Photo by Marjorie Cook.
Mount Aspiring Station, arguably New Zealand's best-known high-country farm, has completed the Crown pastoral lease tenure review process and boosted the public conservation estate by 7345ha.

Four generations of the Aspinall family have farmed next to Mt Aspiring since Jack Aspinall took up the lease in the 1920s.

Randall Aspinall (30), and his wife Allison, have been operating and living on the farm since last year.

Randall's father and mother, John and Sue Aspinall, and grandmother Phyllis, live in Wanaka.

The family has always supported public access across the farm from Raspberry Creek to the Mount Aspiring National Park and this access has been retained in the deal.

In the proposal drawn up by the leaseholders and the government agency, Land Information New Zealand (Linz), 2329ha of productive freehold land will be released to the Aspinalls.

The voluntary tenure review process unlocked the potential for other economic uses of the land, such as conservation management, public access and recreation, Linz pastoral manager, Mathew Clark, said yesterday.

Department of Conservation Otago conservator, Marian van der Goes, said the conservation areas included large alpine areas, mountain peaks and passes.

Valley floor covenants on the freehold land would further protect landscape values and important lowland biodiversity features, she said.

John Aspinall said yesterday his family had a real understanding of the values and public interests on Mount Aspiring Station and had worked positively with the Crown to arrive at a win-win outcome.

"Prior to entering tenure review, we managed conservation and recreation values on 70% of the pastoral lease land, and provided public access for around 80,000 people annually.

"We will continue to provide similar public access across the land freeholded by the tenure review.

"My parents [Jerry and Phyllis] also voluntarily surrendered 20,000ha to become public conservation land during renewal of the lease in 1957.

This formed a core area on the eastern side of the Mount Aspiring National Park," John Aspinall said.

Randall and Allison Aspinall will continue farming sheep and cattle on the freehold land.

Mr Clark said the boundaries have been surveyed and fenced, and the new conservation areas would be publicly available once the land had been transferred to Doc.

That should be completed by the end of the year, in time for the 2012 summer, Mr Clark said.


Tenure review

As at 30 June 2011:
• 86 tenure review substantive proposals have been completed, covering a total land area of about 460,000ha; of which about 230,000ha (50%) is designated as public conservation land and 230,000ha (50%) as freehold.
• 5 additional pastoral leases with a combined land area of about 126,000ha have been purchased outright by the Crown for conservation.
• 97 pastoral leases are going through the tenure review process with a combined land area of about 684,000ha.
• 115 pastoral leases with a combined land area of about 850,000ha are not in tenure review.


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