Erik Olssen’s book, The Origins of an Experimental Society: New Zealand 1769-1860, reminds us that we have a rare example of what is known as a "relict landscape" here on the Otago Peninsula that reflects that early Pākehā agricultural activity.
Most such areas in New Zealand have now been subdivided and covered in housing, but we have the unusual privilege of retaining a number of structures, including stone walls, a rare timber homestead, and even two original farm buildings, still within a rural landscape.
Following a successful campaign to persuade the Dunedin City Council to buy the 324ha Akapatiki Block because of its varied and important values, the property was bought in 2008. The initial intention was to subdivide it and on-sell it after ensuring its important natural values were protected.
When this did not prove economically or practically feasible, in 2015 the Dunedin City Council created the Hereweka Harbour Cone Management Trust to "manage the operations of the Hereweka property while maintaining its values (ecological, recreational, cultural and heritage) for the benefit of the community."
It has now become a jewel in the crown of the city with thousands of Dunedin citizens and visitors each year using the marked walking tracks to climb to the top of the cone (Pukekura) with its stunning and highly photographed 360-degree views, visit the remains of the homesteads or farm buildings of the original farming families, enjoy walking through patches of native bush remnants or walk their dogs and watch the growth of newly planted native trees and bushes in the fenced "Future Forest" area around the Smiths Creek freshwater catchment which still holds eels and native galaxid fish.
All the while walkers and volunteers are now serenaded by tui and bellbirds, watched by kereru and shadowed by fantails, whose numbers have increased following the Otago Peninsula’s Biodiversity Group’s successful campaign to control and almost eradicate possums.
This property was part of one of the Wakefield settlements to which Olssen refers. This area was a part of the original large Otago Block which was bought from Kāi Tahu in 1844 with the intention of having two main classes — a land-owning capitalist class, and a wage-earning working class.
The Hereweka block on the Otago Peninsula was surveyed for individual land titles in 1863. Land on the lower slopes was divided up into approximately 11-acre sections, while the higher, steeper land was divided into sections of between approximately 30 and 50 acres.
William Larnach of Larnach Castle fame bought 100 acres but instead of relying on a wage-earning working class, it was thought that there should be "a sturdy, economically and socially independent citizenry of family farmers efficiently improving their properties".
These independent farm families created dairy farms which, for a number of years, were the main supplier of milk, butter and cheese for the city of Dunedin.
Especially when they had little income while they cleared the forest and established paddocks it appears the farm families also relied partly on employment on the Larnach estate (including his "castle").
Now, under threat of falling down, is the only remaining intact farm building from the Larnach Farm — the Larnach Byre.
In Britain, dairy farmers kept their cows under cover at night. Keeping them in a byre allowed the farmer to give them supplementary feed by just dropping it from a loft overhead into mangers.
Some of their dung was easily collected for fertilising gardens. The stall for each cow also doubled as a milking stand.
The building itself is well known from photographs including that used for promotion of the Dunedin City of Literature. Walkers on the marked track can no longer safely approach the byre.
The Larnach Byre needs to be waterproofed, the junction of the roof, walls and loft floor have to be strengthened and braced if they are not to collapse, and the foundations need to be repaired so that their lower ends are no longer taking up water.
The Hereweka Harbour Cone Management Trust has managed to raise some of the funds needed, including a contribution from the DCC Heritage Fund, but we need your help to raise the remainder and have started a Givealittle page.
If you believe that the Larnach Byre is one that we should retain within its natural landscape for its heritage value and historic importance, please consider assisting with the immediate repair costs.
• Lala Frazer is a trustee on the Hereweka Harbour Cone Management Trust.
