Actual Temperature
8 degrees Celsius
Humidity : 85%
Rainfall : 0.00mm
Wind : Calm wind
In the morning my class get into Polytech's van with Lisa Burton to Craigieburn The Dunedin Amenities Society. Mr. Paul Pope from the Spiralis has project managed the undertaking, supervising the excavation and site restoration. This area significant cultural and heritage asset in Dunedin's landscape. Craigieburn is a colonial subsistence farm that adjoins Ross Creek and the entrance to Flagstaff Scenic Reserve on Tanner and Fulton Road above the Leith Valley. It was originally settled by William and Elizabeth Rankin along with their daughter Elizabeth in 1860. Today it is a unique heritage and conservation history of impressive rimu forest.
As we planted 350 plants with the assistants of 13 persons. We planted plants such as Pittosporum eugenioides (Lemonwood, Tarata), Like matai (Prummnopitys, taxifolia), Totara, Lowland Totara (Podocarpus totara), Ti Kouka, Cabbage tree (Cordyline australis), Five finger, Whauwhaupaku (Pseudopanax arboreus), Chatham Lancewood, Hoho (Pseudopanax chathamicus), Lancewood, Horoeka (Pseudopanax crassifolius).
After planting the trees we was guided on the plant identification the names of plants and the family names and we adjourned at 2.30pm.
Early Beginnings
William and Elizabeth Rankin arrived in Dunedin with their daughter Elizabeth from Scotland in 1860 as assisted immigrants on the Robert Henderson. The Rankin’s arrived with a small amount of money and purchased a 7.2 hectares bush block as a subsistence farm. Subsistence properties were common in early Dunedin where local authorities kept property prices high and wages low. This was a deliberate policy of the provincial authorities to ensure that working men could not afford to buy land, and would be forced to supply labour to larger landowners and businesses at a cheap rate.
The Rankin’s began work on their property by clearing the kanuka (Kunzea ericoides) from around the entrance to the site between Tanner and Wakari Roads up to the present location of the stone wall and beyond. Firewood was at a premium in Dunedin in the 1860’s because there was no reliable local coal supply until 1870, and firewood lots were worth £200/acre. To earn extra money Elizabeth and William felled the trees together and while William took the wood to the city for sale by bullock sled, Elizabeth would cut and split the logs ready for the next load. It was hard physical work and Elizabeth Rankin is recorded as wearing “breekit” drawing her skirts up between her legs like trousers and holding them up with a leather belt. Click on images for viewer.
Edwin Tanner
William Rankin died in the 1872 and Mrs Rankin married Edwin Tanner in 1879. Edwin Tanner was a strong influence on his community and his family. A self-taught surveyor he served as a City Councillor for the Maori Hill Borough. During this period a deliberate halt to the removal of tree’s on the property occurred within the family and that ban remained in place throughout Tanner and Elizabeth’s life time. Edwin died in 1909 and later his wife Elizabeth died in 1921 at the age of ninety-four.
Elizabeth Sherriff
Elizabeth Rankin had arrived at Craigieburn as small child with he parents William and Elizabeth senior and lived on Craigieburn all of her life. She married local man Robert Sherriff and moved to a separate house on the property brought by bullock from Wakari to Tanner Road. Her husband Robert died in 1902 and she was widowed with 10 children in a two bedroom house. Elizabeth Sherriff continued to farm the small property and lived on the site for nearly ninety years, eventually dying on November 3, 1949, at the age of ninety- three. She had maintained the love of trees that her step-father Edwin Tanner and mother Elizabeth had been so vehement about, by ensuring that an area of four acres of native bush remained on the northern boundary of Ross Creek Reservoir. Mrs Sherriff had held onto this legacy despite pressure from her family to have the area milled. Click on images for viewer.
The Dunedin Amenities Society
The Dunedin Amenities Society recognised the conservation values of Craigieburn at some period during the late 1940’s and approached Mrs Sherriff to see whether she would sell the property. She agreed to give the Society first right of purchase on her death and left instructions in her will. The purchase was finalised in 1950 and managed under a deed of trust to protect the property in perpetuity. The replanting faded in the early 1970’s and the project was revitalised in the 1990’s when much of the historical material was rediscovered and researched. The Otago Polytechnic Horticultural students have been planting trees with the Society for the last 20 years and new forest has been created in formerly cleared areas. Since 2006 the Society have now completed a major archaeological survey and restoration of the stone structures on the property as well as initiating interpretation and linking the site to Ross Creek Reserve. Click on images for views of some of the artefacts from the archaeological work at Craigieburn.
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