HERITAGE
WAVES AND CURIOUS STARES
I
n the early colonial years, bullock power the century-old family waggon that can be changed the landscape of Canterbury from found at Okains Bay Museum. abundant bush and swamp to agricultural From the 1960s to 1980s, Murray made several pasture and town sections. bullock-team trips from Okains Bay to feature From 1855, Thomas Parkinson worked in parades and demonstrations at regional Rhodes’ Kaituna Estate. He was said to have agricultural shows. The 50-mile journey to the driven the first bullock team on the Peninsula. Canterbury A&P Show took up to eight days, Bullock teams ploughed and hauled logs, the bullocks walking up to 10 miles at a time. stone, bricks, and waggon-loads of Peninsula The first leg was by truck to Puaha, Little River. wool and grass seed to market. On one trip, after a week of shearing, son As lorries and tractors replaced bullock Luis rose at 5.30am to join the team for the teams, they remained essential on steep, second leg to a rest house at Price’s Valley. isolated Peninsula farms. While Murray drove the leaders, Luis controlled Okains Bay farmer and museum founder, the brake from behind the ‘polers’. Murray Thacker, preferred bullock power to Murray’s other children joined him at a tractor. Teams moved logs and equipment different stages of the journey. On some trips, around his hillside farm and launched the his wife Fred drove ahead with the hay for the family powerboat. bullocks, and the local baker dropped off rolls Murray was the last of a long line of Okains and buns. The team regularly drew waves and Bay ‘bullockies’, and he trained his young curious stares from passing motorists. bullocks to respond to individual commands. There was another overnight stop between With wide heads and horns, his Hereford Tai Tahu and Halswell and, lastly, at a property bullocks were more suitable than the on Lincoln Road near the Showgrounds. Friesians who would shake off the yoke. The trip culminated with Murray leading Murray made the kōwhai and iron yokes the bullock team at the front of the parade and maintained the waggons, including through the city to Cathedral Square. okainsbaymuseum.co.nz 16
