Willing sellers, willing buyer
In 2004, when the 12,181-ha Clent Hills Station in the Lake Heron Basin in Mid Canterbury came on the market, three neighbouring families convinced the Nature Heritage Fund to come on board as part of their tender for the land.
Ben Todhunter, a shareholder in Lake Heron Station, said the families had realised the potential conservation value of the land and had approached fund managers.
The farmers bought the entire Clent Hills pastoral lease and then sold on about 80 per cent of it to the fund. The Government paid just over $2.5 million for the 10,000-ha slice of spectacular Canterbury high country, stretching from mountain tops to the shores of a lake.
About 25 per cent of Clent Hills had been developed, and this remained with the pastoral lease bought by the consortium of neighbouring farmers who were then able to increase the viability of three adjoining farms.
Todhunter says the farmers could see a way that something could work for the Crown and for them.
‘‘We all bought the whole property, and the base was divvied into two bits, while the NHF took the 10,000 ha, the farmers took the productive land,’’ Todhunter says. ‘‘It was a good outcome for all parties including the vendor. If the Government wants conservation outcomes it’s a very efficient way, going to the market means you don’t get aggrieved parties, and you don’t have to do it by regulation.’’