100 years on the land celebrated
| Published date | 06 May 2021 |
| Publication title | Central Otago News |
When the snow melted, rabbits covered the farm in Dumbarton, near Ettrick.
As the baby boy grew, so did the rabbit population, and a dream was born.
The boy counted down the days until he could leave school, aged 14, to make his fortune rabbiting.
Rabbiting was easy money, he said.
The dead rabbits needed to be gutted, their legs platted, and then be left covered at the front gate for trucks to pick up to skin in Alexandra or Mataura.
The rabbiting dream was shortlived.
A year after Mr Frame left Roxburgh School, the Government introduced legislation requiring rabbit boards to kill the pest.
‘‘That put an end to it.’’
Now about 2000 Corriedale ewes and 600 hoggets and 75 Hereford cattle were on the 1000ha farm.
The farm had changed a lot since Mr Frame’s father Arthur first stepped on the land.
Arthur returned to Otago after serving as a sapper, building bridges in Europe in World War 1.
On his return in 1921, he leased Crown land, about 800ha, a mostly unfenced hill country block of Moa Flat Station, as part of a soldiers’ ballot programme.
The only accommodation on the property was a musterers’ hut.
The land was covered in broom and gorse and overrun with rabbits.
Before serving, Arthur worked as a rabbiter near Oamaru, so he began making money from the land by selling rabbit skins.
‘‘He knew the game of rabbiting. Dad always said it was the rabbits which saved him — he got more for his skins than he did for his wool.’’
Arthur married Agnes ‘‘Nessie’’ Laird, of North Otago, in 1924 and they had five children: Jack, Ina, Joan, William, Bill and Donald.
After a brief stint farming merinos, the family decided to farm only Corriedale sheep, a decision which remains today.
Bill said the Corriedale breed was selected for its steady wool price, which continues today, and because of the breed’s prevalence in the area.
‘‘The whole district was Corriedale.’’
Most farmers had moved away from Corriedale and many now farmed merino.
The family had milked cows on the farm for personal use and to sell the cream for processing in Milton.
As family members left the farm, the herd dwindled to a single cow, and the tradition stopped about five years ago.
The farm expanded when Bill’s parents bought a neighbouring orchard block in 1939 and spent 700 pounds renovating the house on it, including a new roof and two new rooms.
In 1953...
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