Kopanga Station – Neil Chambers

Cynthia Bowers: Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome along here tonight to our Landmarks History lecture. Our speaker this evening is Neil Chambers – welcome Neil, lovely to have you here. Neil is probably already well known to many of you – he owns Kopanga Station in Havelock North and that property has a long and very interesting history. I know because Ewan McGregor, my husband, has been working with Neil to write the history because although it says 1909 up there, this year is your centenary I think, Neil?

Neil: Of the house.

So without further ado, I’ll welcome Neil to come forward and speak to us.

Ewan McGregor: I’m just going to make a quick introduction about this story, because now I’m very familiar with Kopanga Station – didn’t much know about it at all because even though it’s at the back doorstep of Havelock North, it’s rather secluded. And Kopanga is a branch of the landholdings of the Chambers family, which is one of the most innovative families … you could even say founding families … innovative families in New Zealand’s history. The original Chambers, John Chambers, started the first hydro power scheme in the British Empire, and believe it or not, still operational. It’s the oldest hydro power scheme that’s operational in the world. It’s right at the back door, on the other side of the Tukituki River. They were very innovative in their technology and in their land use; first commercial winery, and [?giant?] forests. Anyway, this is a story of one branch of that family. Kopanga Station – it [was] settled in 1909 by Selwyn Chambers. He lost his life at Gallipoli, and … a tragic loss, but he left a great legacy. So I’m going to go through just images, which are just a very small fraction of the images that were party to the book, which is [??], and it’ll be a prompt for Neil to tell you this great story of Kopanga Station.

Neil: All right – so John Chambers, [shows slide] who came out from Australia – originally from Hereford in England – and he came out and he made a lot of money in Victoria in the gold mines – not as a gold digger, but making the tools for the gold diggers. And he came out here in 1853 and took up the Mokopeka block and Te Mata, and ended up with around about eighteen thousand acres stretching from the Maraetotara to the Herehere Stream in Havelock North. [Shows slides throughout] And that’s my great grandparents, Thomas Mason Chambers and his wife Margaret – I’m not sure when that was taken, but it’s obviously at Tauroa, by the look of it.

That’s the original map of Kopanga – unfortunately, it should be up the other way, but it used to go right back down here to the Tukituki River.

My father – in 1946 there was a fair amount of debt on Kopanga, owing to the loss of my grandfather and dealing with my grandmother – and he actually sold off the back thousand acres in 1946, which he sold to David Orton.

Selwyn Chambers as a young man, and then heading off to the war, or when he was in the Wellington Expeditionary Forces. I think I’m right in saying in peace time he is the youngest officer to reach the rank of Major in the history of the New Zealand Army. I think I’m correct in saying that. And I can’t remember – we worked out he was made a Major in 1914 … beginning [of] 1914, or it might have been August 1914.

And that’s me. Ewan and I went out the back – that’s the Maori pa at the back of Kopanga, known as [?King Cod?] Kopanga Pa – written about by a number of authors including Buck Buchanan, who was once headmaster of Hereworth; Patrick Parsons is writing a little bit in my book about it. It was never ever a Pa that the Maoris lived in. Patrick’s had several looks at it, and it was a Pa that was built as a retreat, and on three sides it’s actually very steep – I mean you can get a motorbike up the front but you can’t get a motorbike over the back. And as kids we would go up there and there were all these rocks about that size and we had a lot of fun throwing them down the hill. I told Patrick about it and he said “well, that was their ammunition.” When you’re looking at that from here, [shows slide] on the left it’s not very far down to a very good water supply. And I know if I was a Maori I’d rather be at the top throwing rocks down than coming up with [chuckle] some form of weapon.

That’s a look of Kopanga going back – I don’t know where Ewan’s quite dug that one up from – but looking at part of the hills and the Kopanga landscape, or the Chambers family landscape. Little cottage built in 1909 – in actual fact that was when my grandfather took over, and there’s another one, I think, coming up of the stables, which was the first building built in 1909, and that little cottage was completed in 1910 and there it is there. And there’s the stables, all brick. Sadly, it’s deteriorated to a point where it’s not worth spending any money on. It’s all old lime mortar, and all the mortar in it is unfortunately rotting away. And what do you do with a building like that? Spend $50,000 on it to preserve it? Or forget about it and [chuckle] if somebody wants to restore it they’re more than welcome to, but I’m certainly not going to.

[Next slides] My grandparents on their wedding day … not sure who they all are, we did work out some of them – that’s Bernard Chambers, who was a first cousin of my grandfather; and my grandmother – she was Violet Hall from Starborough, which is now Seddon.

Louis Hay, the architect of Kopanga. There’s been quite a number of stories written about Kopanga and Louis Hay, all fairly brief. My grandfather unfortunately had a number of rows with him, as I understand most people who hired Louis Hay as an architect did. Certainly as Peter Shaw says in his book, probably as a young, up and coming architect, the job of building Kopanga was a major, major job for him. It was his biggest private contract at the time. But he certainly made a remarkable job, and … very, very well-designed house for the period of time.

Construction of the house … you can see all the framing in it – two storey … we do know from my grandfather’s diaries that he was still sorting out the plans in September 2013 [1913]. And you think that nine thousand square feet of concrete house was completed at the end of October … beginning of November 1914. You know, in a year – two bullock teams; two yards of shingle from the Tukituki River hauled up – those old buggers knew how to work. And the cost of building a house then was … well the brief to Louis Hay from my grandfather was, “I want a substantial ferro cement house for £1500.” Well we got a substantial house, but it was £2,500 and then there was a big row over the cost of it. But to think that they carted all that shingle from the river … all done by hand. They had a big concrete mixer apparently there, but no one knew [what] happened to that.

[Showing various slides]

That’s a photograph taken of the hill behind the house – you can see the stables in the corner, and the cottage, and then the start of Kopanga. I would imagine that photograph was probably taken in the autumn of 1914. And there it is – that’s when they got to there, or that’s when they put the date on it.

He was of course, very keen on his military activities, and was a member of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force … was the The Wellington Mounted Rifles.

There’s another one down at Takapau. And that’s one obviously inspecting the troops somewhere, that Ewan’s dug up from somewhere. It’s amazing what [chuckle] Ewan’s produced out of the woodwork. For me it’s been a very interesting exercise, because there’s a lot of little bits and pieces that suddenly I’ve found out about, and I’m actually very glad that it is now being officially recorded.

And there he is … Major Selwyn Chambers on his horse; Sir Henry Havelock; that was presented to him by the children of the primary school in Havelock North. And I have just … you may have seen it in the paper about a month ago … presented the photograph back to the school. After a hundred years it ended up in Jack Chambers’ hands, and then I got hold of it and … [after a] hundred years we’ve actually given it back to the school, which I think is now in its appropriate place.

There’s another one Ewan’s dug up from somewhere. [Chuckle] Old [?] Rainbow’s taken that photo … the troops going off. And there they are, that’s … must be boarding somewhere. Nine, ten ships I think took off, and my grandfather sailed on the ‘Orari’ on 16th October 1914. There’s another one of the fleet – as I say there were ten of them. There’s quite a vivid description in one of the books of the troop ships sailing out, in one of my grandfather’s diaries. There they all are there.

They spent a lot of time in Egypt training, and then suddenly the horses were put aside. And his diary relating to the time in Egypt talks about doing bayonet training, and obviously they were training for Gallipoli, or for foot warfare rather than horse warfare. And four horses came back to New Zealand. Three ended up at Tuna Nui, and the most famous one, Bess, ended up on a Wilson property over in Bulls. And my understanding is that a lot of horses were actually shot to stop the Arabs getting hold of them, because of the way they treated their animals. True or false I’m not sure.

Old photograph that I found in the safe – I knew it was there for quite a number of years, and I actually spoke to Roger Moroney about the photograph and said “oh – you might be interested in it for Anzac Day.” That is on the 23rd December 1914, with the entire Expeditionary Forces riding through Cairo. And we have found a diary with a very, very accurate and vivid description of that march of the Expeditionary Forces going through Cairo.

Anzac Cove … I’ve been there. When you … looking at that road, there was no road there then. And when you think where they landed those poor soldiers – boy oh boy! They had a task ahead of them. Very, very brave men. They were meant to land in Silver Bay, further around the corner where it’s nice and flat, but they got it wrong. And there’s a little bit of Anzac Cove at Kopanga – when I was there, I had grabbed a handful of pebbles off Anzac Cove, so there we are. Those pebbles were picked up down about there – I can even remember picking them up.

That’s in Gallipoli at Number 2 Outpost, which my grandfather so gallantly defended. And Ewan had a … [looking at photo] Beamish, [?] and my grandfather, Selwyn. Oh, now that’s just the letter that was written to my great grandfather. So I think that letter is self-explanatory. There’s his service certificate that came back from … all the servicemen were presented with that on death. I’ve also have got my other grandfather’s certificate – he was killed in France in 1917 – yes, ‘17 or ‘18.

[Next photo] Daughter Kate at the end of the beach where they’ve got the memorial of Atatürk, and his immortal words about ‘Your soldiers are our soldiers’ – I can’t remember the exact words of it, but there she is there. And she was the first direct descendant of Selwyn to go to Gallipoli.

[Next photos] Woolshed at Kopanga, built in 1926. And again, ferro cement. Shearing at Kopanga … my father heading off with my two older brothers when they went off to Huntly. And I don’t know whether that’s me or my twin brother, but we’re off to school. Mum and Dad on their wedding day. My father of course joined up for the Navy when … the outbreak of the second World War, and he actually ended up with his own command of landing craft, and there they are – landing craft. I’m not sure which one is his, but it will probably be a Palermo … I would think that’s probably where it is … unloading. The LTCs … landing craft … one for landing troops and one for landing tanks. They could use them for either/or.

[Chuckle] Yeah – we discovered that – one of the commissions that my father had was to be sent over to New York to bring landing craft back from the States over to the … and obviously they enjoyed a bit of night life in New York. [Laughter]

Ewan: That’s the most modest image. [Laughter]

Neil: [Next photos] Drafting sheep in the yards of Kopanga, in about 1953 or ‘54. Circular yards, and my brother that lives in Australia – when he went over to work in Australia, the Ag [Agricultural] Department Australia had just designed a new set of sheep yards for this fellow, and he was very, very proud – he had these circular sheep yards, and my brother Michael said, “Oh, they’re not new – my grandfather built circular sheep yards in 1910”. [Laughter]

My father classing wool, something which I carried on doing and I classed my own clip pipe – had my wool classing ticket.

Just a general view of Kopanga, taken from an aircraft. This is Lane road over here; Kopanga [in the] middle looking at Te Mata Peak. There’s Kopanga – that’s 1950s – in actual fact it is prior to 1950; it is prior 1936, and I know that because the sun porch here is opened up, and that was enclosed in 1936. And that photograph was taken by Piet van Asch, and it was the precursor to Aerial Mapping. Piet went around the district taking photographs of old homes, and went around then selling them to people. And there’s the old cow bale down there, [where we] used to milk the cows. But there it is, so that’s pre-1936, but to date it exactly – I don’t know.

[Next photos] My mother, twin brother, and two older brothers; me and my dear late Kathy on our wedding day; Chambers family – last family [photo] the whole Chambers family had together, Christmas 1972. Obviously with one brother living in Australia it didn’t happen very often, but Michael and his wife were out here and we all got together for a family Christmas.

Repairs and maintenance – hmm! Looks like a bomb site. That’s when Kathy and I did the kitchen up – my parents had already had one crack at it, and we had to get an engineer’s report, knock a wall out and we rebuilt the kitchen. And then – I don’t know, about ten years ago, we painted the house again, and it was a major … took one bloke twelve months to do – did it on his own.

And that’s a front end loader – we won’t show you too many photographs of what we did and didn’t do. People from OSH (Occupational Safety & Health) here mightn’t have been very impressed with us, but we won’t worry about them. But there it was … it was a major task.

Oh, that’s Kathy and Kathy’s little dog, Baxter.

Ewan: What about the story of the Jack Russell?

Neil: Oh [chuckle] – it wasn’t that Jack Russell. Hold on, I’m just going to have a lean – five weeks ago I was lying in Royston with a new knee. We’ve done Art Deco tours for a number of years, and … one of those things … old historic home I guess, and we’ve been very happy to open it up for people to come and enjoy. Because it was a Louis Hay home etcetera, and everyone was doing Art Deco and Louis Hay, they used to come out to Kopanga; [in] fact they came out last year I think, wasn’t it? Then did one this year. And we had this Jack Russell named Jack, and I was giving the talk about the history of Kopanga in the front lawn and these people had all come out, and decked to kill, [chuckle] everything – all the bells and whistles for the Art Deco era. There was one very attractive lady that had the most beautiful fox fur. And old Jack’s waltzing through, and he wanders up to this woman and she said … bends down, “Oh, you’re a nice little dog, Jack”. And Jack says “no, no, [chuckle] bugger you” – bang! And he’s got the fox by the tail. [Laughter] And she stands up … “Naughty little dog! Naughty little dog! Let go!” Well, Jack eventually let go within about three centimetres of the fox’s tail, and some bright wag yells out “What’s next for entertainment?” [Chuckles] Yeah. It was a hired fox fur – she hired it, so … anyway.

The old docking scene – I think anyone that’s farming here knows all about docking, but there we are … docking at Kopanga.

The last grand parade, and one of my friends took that photograph and gave me a stick about it – I was very much a junior boy in the A & P [Agricultural & Pastoral] Society, and that happens to be Miss New Zealand and the runner up.

That’s me and the four – Kathy and Hannah and Kate and Sarah – at Kopanga.

We’re at the cars – the old Rolls Royce – I tried to buy it from my brother, but my father wouldn’t let me buy it off him, otherwise I think the Rolls’d still be in the family. An interesting story – my father was always very keen on old cars … fast cars. Had a 3038 Vauxhall; he had one of three Bentleys … the four-litre Bentleys. There’s the Bentley; that’s the Vauxhall. The Bentley was one of three that were built specially to race at Silverstone. It had a sixty gallon fuel tank, so they didn’t have to refuel during the race. There it is. Sadly it ended up in Christchurch, and the fellow pranged it and got himself killed in it. But the old man acquired the Rolls Royce; he had a little Singer Sports which – I think Ewan’s got a photograph somewhere. There it is the Singer Sports, and he was in Tourist Motor Company as it was then, and here was a Rolls Royce. And the old man thought ‘oh, wouldn’t mind that car’. So he got a £120 for the Singer, and he paid £230 for the Rolls Royce. [Chuckles] The other one of course is an Austin Sheerline limousine which my father bought new; is still in the family, and dad always boasted it cost him four bales of wool. It was £2,000, which was a very expensive car in 1951. But there it is.

And that was one taken when Hannah was about eight. And that’s my grandmother – it’s in 1926 – Minerva, that she had there. And then there were the modern cars – that was my mother’s little A30. My first car was a Mini Station Wagon.

Along with all the good and the bad things in Hawke’s Bay of course, we do have to endure droughts, and that’s just a typical drought scene in Hawke’s Bay. We also have our fair share of the other side of the coin, with storms and snow and hail storms and all that sort of thing.

As something better to do, I went and drove buses for Gannet Safaris, and Kathy was the tea lady, and we were known as ‘the bus driver and the tea lady’, and … just a little amusing story about the bus driving and Art Deco. I’d done a Friday trip out to the Cape on the Friday, and on the Saturday morning we had a Historic Homes tour. And of course there was a lovely couple from Auckland, and I was chatting [to] them freely just … here was I, the bus driver. And the next day they were on the bus tour to come up to Kopanga for the historic homes tour, and I was doing my story about Kopanga, and this woman kept looking at me. And afterwards she came up and she said, “Excuse me”, she said, “ weren’t you our bus driver yesterday?” And I said “I’m a Jack of all trades, and master of none”. [Laughter] But anyway – yeah, we do have some amusing days.

[Next photos] Just a general view of Kopanga, taken when the bougainvillea was out in full glory. And as you can see there, the sun porch out on the right hand side’s been enclosed.

In February we celebrated a hundred years of Kopanga. Although grandfather had taken over the farm in 1909, we decided that Hawke’s Bay better celebrate … or I better celebrate Hawke’s Bay’s first privately owned reinforced concrete residence. Not the first concrete residence to be built in Hawke’s Bay – obviously the County Hotel was one, and there were several others – but it was the first private residence built in Hawke’s Bay, to the hour.

Chambers family on the steps of the Centennial; Mark Chambers on a horse – we did a little bit of a stint. It was Mark’s idea, and I had to think twice before I … ‘cause I had to put a plan in place, but we actually got a bugler in, and we played the Last Post, and as a tribute to my grandfather Mark rode over the front paddock up onto the tennis court dressed as a 1914 trooper.

Don’t know why Ewan’s put that in [chuckles] – he must’ve been getting short of photos. [Chuckles] And that’s just me sitting in the garden at Kopanga.

Cynthia: So Neil – happy to answer any questions?

Neil: I’ll try.

Question: What does Kopanga mean?

Neil: That’s a very interesting question, and even Ewan can’t find that out. Somebody might be able to tell me, but I assume that it’s to do, being [Maori] … the name originally came from the Pa site, but how it got there or what, I wouldn’t know. But I mean the Pa was always known as the Te Kopanga Pa.

Question: Neil, how did the homestead fare in the ‘31 quake?

Neil: No – it fared actually very well, and my grandfather did a lot of research into reinforced concrete before he built the house. And when he got up into the roof … and some of the photographs we’ve got there’s a heap of steel in it. And I had a chat with Natusch … Guy Natusch in Napier … and apparently depending on which way your house is facing and how the reinforcing is done – and he’s seen the photographs – had a lot of bearing on whether they stood up or not. But one of the problems with the house is that we’ve got what they call concrete cancer. And unfortunately there’s not a photograph of it there, but it’s where you get hair cracks in the concrete; water gets in; the reinforcing rusts and blows the concrete off. And when we did the house up, I spent … bloody three weeks knocking bits of concrete off, and getting back to bare reinforcing, and then having to brush it all down, treat it all, and then we had to get a plaster in to re-plaster. So yeah, I mean it’s got its drawbacks.

Cynthia: What would the reason have been that he built in concrete?

Neil: I have … [chuckle] I have no … whether he was worried about fire or not, which is why the rest of the Chambers family built in ferro cement or ferro cement and brick. Because Kopanga had just been completed when Tauroa of course was burnt down. And I know that my great grandfather said, “well, we’re going to have a house that won’t burn down.” And there’s a story related by my father – there was a fellow trying to sell fire extinguishers – and Kopanga Rd was a very new road – at the cemetery, and he said “where’s that go?”. And the bloke said “oh, there’s a joker building that great big house at the top of the hill”. “Oh, I’ll go and see if he wants some fire extinguishers”. He said “oh, no – you’re wasting your time going up there. [Chuckle] He’s got it from Almighty God that his house won’t burn down.” [Chuckles] Anyway, this fellow did – he trundled up the road and then discovered that it was a house built of ferro cement, and left very disgruntled, with my grandfather not amused he was trying to sell him fire extinguishers. Anyway …

In actual fact we did have a serious fire when I was very young in the kitchen – a refrigerator caught fire, and if it hadn’t been for the fact that it was a concrete house, it probably would have been burnt down. And ironically, my father turned the refrigerator into a smoke house, which eventually did catch fire and destroyed a woodshed and a firewood saw and all of that sort of thing – yeah. [Chuckles]

Cynthia: Neil, can I just thank you very much. Not only an interesting history of the farm and the property but a family history as well. So thank you so much, well firstly for the care that you take of the property, because it’s part of our Hawke’s Bay and New Zealand heritage. Thank you for sharing your story with us tonight … could you all join me in thanking Neil. [Applause]