The Ranfurly Volunteer Fire Brigade was alerted at 12.20am to the fire, on a property on the Upper Taieri-Paerau Rd.
Firefighter Greg Baddock, of Ranfurly, said the owners noticed the shearing quarters were on fire when they arrived home about midnight, after a night out.
The fire brigade had to make a 60km journey on unsealed, snow-covered roads from Ranfurly, and by the time it arrived, the building was beyond saving, he said.
The cause of the blaze may have been a fire in a fireplace, which was set to take the chill off the building in preparation for the arrival of visitors, who planned to stay there a few days later.
It was not considered suspicious.
Ranfurly Volunteer Fire Brigade Chief Fire Officer James Hazlett said the brigade's priority on arrival was to douse nearby stables and trees with water to prevent them from catching fire.
There was nothing we could do to save the shearers' quarters, and luckily, nothing else was affected by the fire," he said.
Mr Hazlett said brigade members used an excavator on the farm to remove iron from the burnt building, estimated to measure 180sq m.
The remains were left in the hands of the owners.
A single fire appliance was assisted by a Central Otago District Council rural fire authority water tanker.
It was about 4am by the time brigade members returned home, he said.
