The Country 01/10/25: Bill Mouat talks to Hamish McKay

We catch up with the author of Gold Under the Mānuka, which is about his family’s inspirational story on Mangaorapa Station in southern Hawke’s Bay.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, I've been looking forward to this chat for a
while since it first sort of came through the machine
that we would be talking about this particular book. It's
called Gold under the Minookah, and I'm going to get
the correct pronunciation of the station the farm involved. But
it's a farming story like no other. The author is

(00:21):
a Bill Mullett, and Bill joins us out of Napier today.
Good afternoon, Bill, how are you?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yes, good, good afternoon.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah, a fantastic thank you. Now, right, so I'm going
to go Mungo Rapper. Am I correct? How do we say?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
No, you're pretty well spot on.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
It's Mungo Manga or rapper, Munga or rapper, right, so
I wanted to get that now, manga O Rapper station,
Central Hawks Bay, a tack of Powe.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Central Hawks Bay, Parha how so it's more Southern Hawks
Bay about ten Kay and land from Paranha.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
How right, Okay, wonderful part of the country. Now, this
is a story of a dream that started back in
what nineteen forty six? Now, who does that? What generation
of the family does that go back to you?

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Now, that's the one of my grandfather and he originated
from Taga Power I owned a transport business there, but
his dream was to own land and he bought land
at the end of the Taga Power Planes in nineteen
thirty eight. He had two sons and he wanted a
big challenge for them and that challenge came in the
form of buying Manger Up Station in nineteen forty six

(01:35):
and they then set about. It was based on an
undeveloped block and they then their challenge was to plow
the Manu currency under the ground, which was a new
form of breaking in land at that time, and that
was their challenge. It took them ten years to do
that and the end result when they finished and finished
development was one of the most productive stations in New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
And that wasn't all ways the view of some of
the detractors. There was one or two that thought that
maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yes, there was exactly right. At the time. The hill
country Manaia stations basically a flat to rolling property and
the surrounding hills were valued in nineteen forty six at
twice the price of the flat to rolling land of Manarapa,
and the people there was a lot of talk around
where they doaled where the truck drivers could come in

(02:29):
and farm land at this scale. Because they really didn't
think they knew what they were doing. All of them
gave them six months, so the GM more generous ones
gave them two years. So what they didn't, what they underestimated,
was these guys will to work and this was one
of the keys to what they did. And obviously the
knowledge they had with machinery to do the work.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Yeah, fantastic. And she's a fear old slab of land though,
isn't it? Four seven nine two? And the old acres
what's that a couple of thousand higdares?

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, that's the one, just over two thousand hectares.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Yes, yeah, So the hard work's done. And then in
nineteen seventy nine a couple of a younger couple of
younger blokes come on there and take it on. Tell
us about that.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yes, that's right. Well, prior to that, it was my
grandfather started it. He was William Martin or Billy Mowett.
Then my father and his brother took over and they
handled most of the breaking in, and in nineteen fifty
eight my father brought out his brother and he took

(03:36):
on the challenge of running and developing the station further,
and at that time he was the youngest man in
New Zealand with the highest debt in the farming will
so that was a big challenge for him. And then,
as you said, nineteen seventy nine, my brother Brian and
I took over in partnership and we found it through

(03:58):
until it was sold in the truth was and I'm tired.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, that must have been. What's at twenty six years
of your life? I mean, but what an incredible time.
And the book recounts much of what you established free
lamming those high fertility us and freezing bull beef back
in the early nineties. That was big, wasn't it. And yeah,
it became a fantastic operation.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah, it was a very diverse operation. We were a
self contained a station and that we employed our own carpenters,
our own workshop, engineers, mechanics, our own fencing team. We
did all our own paintings, so it was a unique situation.
It was sort of run on a village type principle

(04:45):
and our staff were important to us. We treated Staffa's
family and so it was run like that and we're
then interesting thing is many of the stuff that have
worked for us have come back over the years and said, well,
it was the best of their lives. So that's always
a good result from our point of view to hear that.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
Yeah, fantastic bill. The book is gold under the Manukah
mangot up As station ten kilometers inland from Parna. How
three generations took it through. And of course, as you say,
the land moves on. But you know, I think my
dad said, what was this terminology to me? We're only
ever sort of a guest of the land or you know,
but we never leave it even though we are, you know,

(05:26):
even though it changes on the title, I guess.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
How you feel exactly right, and the other words it
chooses or caretakers of the land, and one of the
things from our point of view, it's obviously big decisions
when you move on and do other things. We actually
moved into littericulture and we grew grapes on the manger
upper as well, which is actually in the in the book.

(05:49):
But you know, the interesting thing is the history of
any block of land, or any company for that matter,
you never lose it because that history is locked into
those people and that family at that time. So it's
you know, it's something that we think we've captured in
the book and that was the moment time through that era,

(06:11):
and it'll never leave us, it'll never go away. And
then now the book's captured in it in words and
it's there for a long time. So we're very proud
about that.

Speaker 1 (06:20):
And that is absolutely wonderful. Bill Maher, thank you out
of night the O this morning. Thank you very much
for your time. Much appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah, thanks so much.