| The famous Central Otago
Dunstan gold rush of 1862 lured Richard Chard from Dorset, England out to
New Zealand. He arrived at the tender age of 14 and worked in the Dunstan
and Gibbston areas for several years before settling at the Morven Ferry
end of the old coach road to Queenstown, a place that is now well known
in the area as "Chard Farm." Chard started with a one-acre strip, enough
to accommodate a vegetable plot and an orchard. Richard milked a couple
of cows, kept a few hens and became more interested in supplying the miners
with food rather than the allurement of gold. Slowly the farm grew to its
current size of 50 acres as small plots were taken over. The beautifully
aspected farm and the qualities of its relatively frost free slopes and
free draining soils were recognised early in the development of the Gibbston
Valley and Wakatipu areas. Richard Chard married Emily Green from Woodstock,
England in 1884 and they had seven children, |
all of whom attended
the local Gibbston School.
Richard died in 1905, leaving youngest son Fred to look after the farm.
Fred kept a bit of the market garden but concentrated on dairying and the
first petrol driven milking machines were installed in 1929. Apart from
that little bit of technology, Chard Farm basically "stood still" for the
next 50 years as Fred steadfastly refused to keep up with modern technology
-- "horse" power was the only power on Chard Farm.
There are many stories about machinery salesmen, who after extolling the
virtues of their latest tractor-drawn implements for quite some time, were
then asked where the horse connected up! Also Fred's wife, Mary, who on
a rare excursion to Dunedin in 1950, compared her old black coal range to
a new electric range and was told by the eager salesman that to clinch the
deal, he would wire it up free of charge, only to be politely informed by
Mary that the nearest power was in Queenstown, 25 kms away! The Chards finally
got electricity in 1959. The farm's income was never |
more than $1,000 a year
-but as Eric Chard said, "We never made big money, but we were always happy
and comfortable." Fred and his son Eric moved to Arrowtown in 1978 - the
end or an era.
Chard Farm then spent a brief period as a stonefruit orchard in the early
eighties, during which a 4 million litre dam was built in the hills behind
the farm to provide water storage for irrigation and frost fighting. Robert
and Greg Hay from Motueka came to the Central Otago area in 1986 to establish
a commercial vineyard. At the time, a small band of enthusiasts had trial
vineyard plantings in Wanaka, Alexandra and Queenstown.
Rob arrived back in New Zealand in 1985 after studying winemaking in Germany
for three years. He spent the year searching for a piece of land in New
Zealand that best emulated the conditions - the "Terroir" - found in some
of the greatest vineyard areas of the world - most notably the inland cool
climates of Central Europe - Burgundy, Alsace, Champagne and South Germany.
Chard Farm was purchased in 1987 - it was the beginning of the Chard Farm
Vineyard. |
