Model farm combined with aviation interests
HE was a practical man, who frequently described himself as a farm problem solver and handyman.
Others described Phillip Pullar as an entrepreneur, an innovator, and developer of modern, efficient, and sustainable systems.
A forward thinker, who relished the creative development process, after carefully researching and thoroughly planning a project, he was immediately into action. He had limited tolerance for inaction and “bureaucrats” wasting his precious time.
A popular man, often described as larger than life, with a welcoming smile and an engaging personality, he enjoyed the company of others, good conversation, and rigorous debate.
Phillip never wasted a moment of his 62 years. He lived life to the full, achieving much before his death, on February 2, in an aircraft accident on the
Old Man Range, understood to be the consequence of a sudden and unexpected weather event.
‘‘Phillip was fortunate to be able to combine his passions for both aviation and farming, using his aircraft to commute frequently between his homes in Bannockburn and Pukerau,’’ close friend and fellow aviator Shaun Gilbertson said.
‘‘This is a return trip he would have done over 500 times, passing over some beautiful landscapes — both mountains and rolling farmland. Phillip never took these for granted.”
Phillip Gordon Pullar was born in Gore on May 6, 1958, the eldest child of Margaret and the late Gordon Pullar, and sibling of Karen, Bronwyn and Logan.
He was educated at Pukerau Primary School and Gore High School, where he was acknowledged as a good hockey player and an exceptional swimmer, competing throughout New Zealand in both sports.
As a youth, he played the piano, organ, and double bass, and throughout his life, he enjoyed good music. A keen Scout, he attended the national Jamboree in Pukekohe over the 197172 summer school holidays, where he was awarded a flight training scholarship. Fascinated by flying, space and astronomy from a young age, he accomplished his first solo flight with the Gore Aero Club at the age of 16.
An enthusiastic photographer, tramper, and shortwave radio operator in his youth, as an adult he enjoyed boating, fishing and holidays with his family and friends.
After leaving secondary school, Phillip worked for sheep farmer Jim Young at Kaiwera, near Gore, then the Lovett family on an arable farm near Ashburton, growing grain and potatoes.
Following graduation from Lincoln College with a Diploma of Agriculture in 1979, he worked on a vegetable and cropping property in Scotland, toured Europe, and returned to New Zealand in 1981 to work on the family property, Crichton Park, at Pukerau. It has now been in the family for 125 years (six generations), and in 2007 the family received a Century Farm Award.
Phillip took responsibility for the farm’s grain growing and drying operations as well as growing and marketing a wide range of vegetables.
In 1985, he married Shirlie Copland. They had three children — Anna, Sam and Kirk — and in the mid1990s, Phillip and Shirlie made a bold and successful decision to convert to dairying to maximise farm productivity.
When his brother, Logan, left to farm in Te Anau in 2000, Phillip and his wife converted the entire property to dairying, and in 2001 purchased an adjoining farm, Gold Stream.
AS one of the earlier converters to dairying in Eastern Southland, Phillip recognised at that time the value of a2 milk. He was an early adopter of farming technologies and enthusiastically assisted with their development. Among these were trials of computerised milking management systems, which gave him the ability to remotely monitor and manage the herd and individual cattle within, across milking performance, feed supplementation, and animal health requirements.
Phillip also believed that looking after the environment was an integral part of responsible dairy farming. Following his father’s earlier example, he planted thousands more trees and native vegetation species along farm fence lines, watercourses, and surrounding the water storage dams he built on the property. Phillip also took care to preserve and enhance the habitat for the native crayfish (koura) present in farm waterways.
In 2002, in conjunction with Fonterra Research Corporation and the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (and scientist Rupert Craggs), Phillip constructed a large and successful fourstage pond system to recycle farm effluent water. The first of its type in the South Island, it was designed with the environment in mind, incorporating landscaping to provide a habitat for native birds.
The Pullars’ environmental work was recognised with the Ballance Farm Environmental Award in 2003.
In 2013, a second dairy shed and supporting infrastructure were built on the Gold Stream property. This incorporated Phillip’s dream “state of the art” automated effluent management system (imported from Austria).
Among those familiar with Phillip’s property, one rural contractor described it as ‘‘a model dairy farm, [and] an absolute credit to the way he operated it. There is no way you could work upon or go past this property and not admire the setting with shelter belts all over the farm, which is hard to find in today’s dairy industry”.’’
It was a source of amusement to Phillip and his family that during campaigning leading up to the 2020 election, both Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Act New Zealand leader David Seymour published photos and videos of themselves driving along State Highway 1, through the Pullar farm at Pukerau.
In 2016, Phillip married Christine Andrews after settling in Bannockburn, Central Otago, where they developed an attractive home and garden surrounding their small vineyard, Hawksburn.
NEVER idle, Phillip had recently planted hops for the Otago Polytechnic Central Campus in Cromwell, and, as a man who thoroughly enjoyed the company of others, he thrived on helping customers at his wife’s Hawksburn High Country clothing shop in Arrowtown, while simultaneously utilising technology to maintain live and direct contact with the Pukerau farm staff and operations, and monitor weather conditions via a farm weather station and webcam.
He continued flying frequently to the farm, staying several days each time, and during calving was there fulltime. In recent years, he had been actively encouraging his onfarm son and daughter to assume extended farm management responsibilities, a challenge they had readily accepted.
Phillip loved dogs, and his friendship with them reflected his warm, caring personality.
Santana, his last dog, frequently accompanied him wherever he went — to the farm, on the plane, and to the shop.
Phillip’s thoughtfulness and involvement with family and close friends, along with his generosity to the Pukerau community, was exceptional.
He served as chairman of the Pukerau School Committee, and was a member of the Board of Trustees from 1998 to 2004. Board members recall his knowledge of governance, generous assistance with projects, and provision of planning skills and machinery.
He was a member of the Pukerau Volunteer Fire
Brigade for almost 20 years.
This firefighting expertise was put to good use at his Bannockburn home in 2015, when, after his diesel boiler unit caught fire, he successfully fought and extinguished the resulting house fire, before the brigade arrived.
Having been a longterm member of the Pukerau Cemetery Board, Phillip’s final gift to the community late in
2020 was to clear, drain, level off and cultivate a significant area of the cemetery grounds ready for landscaping.
During his short time at Bannockburn, Phillip also left his mark, becoming an involved member of the local community.
‘‘Phillip was a significant, valued and enthusiastic committee member of the Cairnmuir Water Supply Association,’’ Bannockburn resident and neighbour James Dicey said.
‘‘Phillip was our designated technical expert and was satisfying to work with as he ensured perfection in recent redesign, development of the scheme, as well as bulldozing improved access down the steep gully to the water scheme.”
Phillip is survived by his wife Christine, children, Anna, Sam and Kirk, and four grandsons.