Changing times at Waipuna Station

• Published date: 01 September 2024
• Publication title: West Coast Farming Times, The

Mackley was not only the first European settler on the Coast, but also a witness to the 1860 Deed of Purchase with local Maori

Waipuna Station, inland from Ikamatua, became a sheep stronghold but more recently has changed its focus and diversified into mainly deer farming, with beef and horses also part and parcel of the farming operation.

The undulating grassland and terraces of Waipuna Station are farmed by brothers Ken and Mark Ferguson, who run separate operations at Waipuna.

Waipuna is part of West Coast history and the brothers maintain the chain of ownership going back to their pioneering relative, Samuel Mackley.

Mackley was the first European settler to be issued with a licence for land settlement in Westland, officially allowing him to take up farming and to settle at Waipuna.

The land settlement was granted on the January 1, 1864, after Mackley had applied for a land grant for 4000 acres of land on grass flats on the south side of the upper Grey River, an area known as Waipuna Hakopa.

Samuel and Mary Mackley established themselves on this remote block of land, raising 11 children on the farm which became the Mackley Estate, and later was renamed Waipuna Station.

Ellen Mackley married Osmond Butler in 1893, and their daughter Irene married George Herbert Aitken Ferguson in 1923; the couple had nine children and the Ferguson dynasty became firmly established in Westland.

This George Ferguson was the adopted son of Samuel George Ferguson and Helen (nee Dunlop), who were married in South Westland in 1879 and soon after built a two-storey home which they operated as a licensed hotel with accommodation named Ferngrove.

George Ferguson and wife Irene had sons Ronald, Mackley, James, George, Gordon, David and Jack, along with their two daughters Joy and Elia, all brought up at Ferguson's Bush, south of Ross.

In the 1950s, George Ferguson jnr took over the Mackley Estate and today his two sons Ken and Mark farm it in two separate blocks.

Ken and his wife Robyn, along with their two sons Ben and Hamish, have a focus on venison and velvet.

The Waipuna farmers have just finished shearing their flock of 1550 sheep, which is a shadow of the 23,000 which once grazed on the Grey Valley grass 44 years ago.

It now supports an increasing herd of 5000 deer.

"We just finished shearing back in August," Ken says.

"We shear the sheep twice a year and pre-shear just before lambing begins in September. The ewes will always go to shelter then which in turn protects the...