Standing Strong, Again / Inside one of our biggest wooden woolsheds
A local North Canterbury landmark has been given a new lease on life
following the 2016 Kaikōura Earthquake.
On Monday 14 November 2016, a sizeable earthquake at 12.02 am, measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale near Waiau almost changed the future of the Highfield Woolshed, which has been sitting handsomely on the North Canterbury landscape for the last 142 years.
When Michael Northcote and his wife Solveig jumped out of bed just after midnight, it was their own house and safety that they were immediately concerned about. ‘We woke up with what sounded like a loud trigger going off. We both were convinced it was the alpine fault, everything was crashing and banging and we were out of the house in seconds. About an hour later we managed to get down to the woolshed so we could see the damage,’ Michael recalls.
On approach it was the farm workshop made from dry blocks next door to the woolshed that caught their eyes first – it was completely decimated with not a wall standing. The historic Highfield Woolshed next door looked sad and broken, it had literally fallen off its piles and the huge rimu trusses had popped through the metal roof, leaving the huge 5000 square metre-plus woolshed sitting on the ground with both its rooves twisted and facing north; the wool press and other shearing equipment were tossed ‘topsy-turvy’ inside.
‘The following day the ground was moving constantly. We sit right on a fault line here, and the epicentre was just a few kilometres away – a fault runs straight through our farm, in fact straight though our woolshed.
‘It’s a T-shaped 24-stand woolshed, the rimu boards were milled from the Marlborough Sounds, and built from ninemetre timber trusses which were transported from Picton to Lyttelton by ship, then barged to Saltwater Creek. They would then have used horse and cart to Waiau, which would have been quite challenging as there was no bridge at the Waiau River back then,’ Michael explains.
Built in 1877, the woolshed used to shear 55,000 sheep annually with blades, and is claimed to be the oldest and biggest wooden woolshed in the South Island. Today the woolshed uses just five stands and shears 6000 sheep annually.
By 1892 shearing machines were installed. ‘When all 24 machines were running it must have been so noisy, it’s no wonder they went back to blade shearing at times,’ comments Michael.
The original Highfield run comprised 45,000 acres, running from Waiau to the Conway River. In 1903 the run was subdivided to provide land for soldiers returning from the Boer war.
Both Michael and his brother Hugh grew up at Highfield. Hugh and his wife Jane now farm the Whaleback Station nearby and they work in collaboration, communicating on daily farm work, sharing staff and equipment, and although the farms are separate the woolshed is an integral part of their own farming operations.
‘When I first wandered through and saw the damage, I always knew that I wanted to repair it. My father had died just
two months before the quake and he was very passionate about the woolshed; there are all the family memories and history tied up in it. But it was two years before we could start doing any repairs, because it took time to plan and implement,’ recalls Michael. ‘It was hard to work out the best process to repair the piles and how to lift the building as a whole. Thankfully Lindsay Smith from Heritage House Relevellers took the job on – it was the biggest building they had ever relevelled.
‘Both Heritage New Zealand and our insurance companies have covered the cost of the woolshed repair – it’s a Category 1 rating, the oldest surviving woolshed in the Hurunui District, and amongst the biggest wooden woolsheds in Australasia. It deserves to be looked after and maintained.’
Over the last 18 months that followed, the shed has been lifted, repiled, repaired, earthquake strengthened and repainted. ‘We had a capable team of architects and engineers involved, floors were ripped up and replaced, we used old timber wherever possible to replace trusses and walls, but the biggest challenge was how to replace the 326 piles which had moved after the earthquake. The building is huge but light, so in order to repair them, it had to be all lifted together.’
Eventually a well-constructed plan was put in place.
Fifty big steel beams were forced under the shed and then 44 hydraulic jacks were used to lift the shed up to 1.8 metres all the way around. ‘The crux of the operation was to lift the building at the same time, by no means an easy task! Then it was a massive cleanup job underneath to get the piles in and the building sitting securely on top again.
‘It was intriguing to find old combs, cutters, blades and various shoes including high heels under the shed, and of course a large quantity of empty bottles,’ Michael chuckles.
‘Eventually it was lowered onto its 326 new piles; it was one hell of an operation and quite spectacular. Whilst working under the shed one day, there were 10 of us tying the shed down to the new piles, and then all of a sudden there was a 4.2 earthquake. Some of the workers ran out whilst others stayed underneath turning quite white in the process,’ Michael recalls.
‘It was intriguing to find old combs, cutters, blades and various shoes including high heels under the shed, and of course a large quantity of empty bottles,’ Michael chuckles.
‘Next up was to replace the roof along the south side – all the broken weatherboards and the 194 panes of glass were broken. It’s been an enormous job but we’re hoping it will now last another 140 years!’
For the Northcote family it is more than just a building. ‘I remember working in here on a wet day after school when I was about 10,’ reflects Michael. ‘My mother wanted sheep poo for the garden, which for a young boy is not a lot of fun. My brother Hugh and I would get distracted and started playing indoor cricket instead. He was left-handed and I was a righthanded batsman so by the end of a match we’d have broken quite a few windows in there.’
Now their own sons, James, 24, and Tom, 22, have had their own cricket matches and parties in the woolshed as will the next generation behind them. ‘It has always been a big part of the community up here. For 37 years it was used as the Amuri A & P Showgrounds. The shed was used to display produce and shelter people if it rained, and we had all the pony events in the paddock near the road, which we still call the Show paddock today,’ Michael explains.
But despite the seemingly long wait, it has been a positive experience rebuilding the dilapidated building. ‘It’s great to see the woolshed back in working order and being used again for local events, weddings and parties; our community really needed to see it repaired!’
‘It has always been a big part of the community up here. For 37 years it was used as the Amuri A & P Showgrounds.’