The Dalziel clan will be one of the 22 families given a New Zealand Century Farms & Station Award in Lawrence on Saturday.
Three families will be acknowledged for farming for more than 150 years and the rest for farming for more than a century.
Hamish and Julie Dalziel are the latest generation to live and work on 299ha sheep farm Braewick in Tuapeka West, about 10km east of Lawrence, since 1874.
Hamish’s great-great-grandfather Christopher Dalziel emigrated from Braewick, in the Shetland archipelago in Scotland, to Dunedin in 1861 and walked to Gabriel’s Gully goldfield in South Otago.
Christopher was a member of the Royal Navy and jumped ship in Australia to join the Victorian gold rush, which was a hangable offence.
He remained part of the Gabriel’s Gully gold rush for 13 years.
Christopher married Mary-Ann Wighton, of Stirling, in Scotland, in 1866, and they set up home at Fenton’s Bush, near Munro’s Gully, in Lawrence.
The Tuapeka West run was opened for settlement in 1874 and they were allocated 40ha covered in scrub.
They started clearing the scrub to run merino-cross sheep and grow crops to feed the family and draught horses.
"The government gave you the land but you had to develop it slowly and prove you were increasing stock numbers and fencing it. It is quite cool to think we were the first here and everything has been done by one family."
Christopher and Mary-Ann built a small home and started a family that grew to 14 children.
The children were home schooled until 1878, when Tuapeka West School opened.
Christopher died in 1897 and his son Lawrence took over.
Lawrence married Agnes Smith, of Roxburgh, in 1905 and they had two children, Rita and Lawrence, also known as Larry.
Lawrence sustained a serious head injury from a dray accident and Braewick slipped into decline.
Third-generation Larry, a bright scholar, had to leave school early to work on the farm.
Farming was difficult during his tenure due to two world wars, the 1929 slump and years of cropping depleting the soils in the district, until the arrival of lime and superphosphate.
Larry married Alice Millar, of Lawrence, in 1939 and they had six children.
Education was encouraged by Larry and he never allowed his children to work on the farm during school hours. All the children went on to have good careers.
Fourth-generation son Walter, Hamish’s father, was 16 when he began working on Braewick to help turn the farm into a viable business.
"Dad started out with an axe, grubber and shearing gear plus the attitude that hard work was the only way forward."
The heaviest scrub was removed and Larry and Walter installed kilometres of fencing, implement sheds, yards and a wool shed.
Walter married Sandra Thomson, of Dunedin, in 1967 and they had three children. Larry and Alice retired in 1972.
Walter and Sandra increased sheep numbers from 800 to 3000 and planted shelter belts and built a new house on Braewick in 1974.
Hamish worked for neighbours and attended Telford Rural Polytechnic near Balclutha. He then went on an OE before returning to farm fulltime on Braewick, when his parents retired to Dunedin in 2009.
"Dad still does some comes up and helps out and does some of the tractor work like sowing crops."
They further subdivided the property, added covered yards, introducing dung beetles to improve soil health, planted about 8ha of pine and macrocarpa forestry and introduced the shedding Wiltshire breed to Braewick.
Romney ewes were run on Braewick for a long time and they began putting a Wiltshire ram over them about five years ago.
He estimated it would take another five years of breeding for his flock to shed the amount of wool he wanted.
About 2200 Wiltshire breeding ewes and 500 replacements were run on Braewick,
The motivation for changing to Wiltshire was strong wool prices remaining low and rising costs to harvest it..
Beef cattle were once farmed on the Braewick but they were removed from the system about five years ago.
"It’s simpler that way."
"I had a lot of the materials and got a power pole off a neighbour."
At the entrance of Braewick stands a sculpture of a viking warrior, made by artist and family member Dirk Robertson, of Shetland, the area in Scotland, Christopher travelled from in 1861.
Honour roll
Southern applicants to receive New Zealand Century Farms & Station Awards this weekend:
• Leon and Wendy Black, of Ermedale, for 100 years.
• Anthony Clarke, of Gimmerburn, for 100 years.
• William Clarke, of Wairuna, for 100 years.
• Les and Christine Cowan, of Otahuti, for 100 years.
• Rex, Kim, John and Doris Gibson, of Gimmerburn, for 100 years.
• William MacMillan, of Mount Pisa, for 100 years.
• Ryan and Abby Moseby, of Mataura, for 150 years.
• Andrew and Heather Tripp, of Gore, for 100 years.
• Brendon and Donna Weir, of Inch Clutha, for 100 years.
