Station Life in New Zealand

Mary Anne Barker (1831 - 1911)

Station Life in New Zealand is a collection of cheerful and interesting letters written by Lady Mary Anne Barker (nee Mary Anne Stewart) that is a New Zealand "classic". These letters are described in the Preface as "the exact account of a lady's experience of the brighter and less practical side of colonisation". The letters were written between 1865 and 1868 and cover the time of her travel with her husband (Frederick Broomie) to New Zealand and life on a colonial sheep-station at their homestead "Broomielaw", located in the Province of Canterbury, South Island of New Zealand. Although these letters are written with great humour and fine story telling, her life was marred by tragedy while in Canterbury through the illness and eventual death of her baby son.

The first four ships of settlers that colonised the Canterbury region had only arrived in 1850. Consequently, little was known about, for example, the irregular Canterbury weather patterns that would dominate the lives of Lady Barker and her husband for those three short years. She describes the regular predations of the Canterbury nor'wester (a type of Fohn wind), including its role in completely blowing away her attempts at establishing a croquet lawn, the devastating effects of snow storm that killed over half of their sheep, and of a great flood that not only flooded Christchurch but demolished her poultry and nearly drowned her husband.

Lady Mary Anne Barker was a strong horse woman and very keen for all sorts of "adventures". She describes instigating a bitterly cold late autumn overnight camping trip to the top of their nearest hill, Flagpole, followed the next morning by a serene sunrise over the Canterbury plains. In other letters, she describes her pride and enjoyment at joining and keeping up with nine men, who doubted her abilities, for long hours of walking in untracked, untamed bush with the aim of hunting wild cattle; and her joy at setting ablaze the tussock grasslands on their sheep station in spite of the risk to her eyelashes. As one of the few women in her part of Canterbury at the time, she also helped provide the neighbourhood with books to read, and baptism and schools for children. Lady Mary Anne Barker and her husband returned to England at the end of 1868. (Summary by Gail Timmerman-Vaughan)

Genre(s): *Non-fiction, History, Memoirs

Language: English

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 01 Preface and Letter I: Two months at sea--Melbourne Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:15:59
Play 02 Letter II: Sight-seeing in Melbourne Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:07:38
Play 03 Letter III: On to New Zealand Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:12:25
Play 04 Letter IV: First introduction to "Station life" Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:11:31
Play 05 Letter V: A pastoral letter Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:07:59
Play 06 Letter VI: Society.--houses and servants Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:15:16
Play 07 Letter VII: A young colonist.--the town and its neighbourhood Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:07:07
Play 08 Letter VIII: Pleasant days at Ilam Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:07:00
Play 09 Letter IX: Death in our new home--New Zealand children. Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:07:13
Play 10 Letter X: Our station home. Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:10:34
Play 11 Letter XI: Housekeeping, and other matters. Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:10:24
Play 12 Letter XII: My first expedition. Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:09:20
Play 13 Letter XIII: Bachelor hospitality.--a gale on shore. Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:13:06
Play 14 Letter XIV: A Christmas picnic, and other doings. Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:23:03
Play 15 Letter XV: Everyday station life. Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:14:08
Play 16 Letter XVI: A sailing excursion on Lake Coleridge Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:14:41
Play 17 Letter XVII: My first and last experience of "camping out." Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:20:35
Play 18 Letter XVIII: A journey "down south." Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:16:35
Play 19 Letter XIX: A Christening gathering.--the fate of Dick. Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:12:28
Play 20 Letter XX: the New Zealand snowstorm of 1867. Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:28:17
Play 21 Letter XXI: Wild cattle hunting in the Kowai Bush. Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:29:29
Play 22 Letter XXII: The exceeding joy of "burning." Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:20:27
Play 23 Letter XXIII: Concerning a great flood. Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:20:57
Play 24 Letter XXIV: My only fall from horseback. Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:09:08
Play 25 Letter XXV: How We lost our horses and had to walk home. Gail Timmerman Vaughan
00:16:14