Dust to Gold – The Inspiring Story of Bendigo Station

By John Perriam (Random House NZ, RRP $49.99)

 

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I was backpacking in Turkey with a couple of mates in April 2004 when I checked New Zealand websites and found a merino sheep dominating the news.

Those living in London become accustomed to the odd sheep joke thrown their way, and having been there for more than a year, I too had become immune to the banter.

But there would be no escaping the jokes that would flow about this woolly beast from Bendigo Station in Central Otago that had been nicknamed Shrek. No, Kiwis in the UK would cop significant grief about how the biggest news to come out of our home country was a woolly sheep.

From London, it was hard to judge the scale of the impact that Shrek had on New Zealand, but his owner and proud promoter, John Perriam, has done a cracking job in his book Dust to Gold – The inspiring story of Bendigo Station, home of Shrek explaining how he became a media megastar.

It appears everyone, even if they had been living on an outer Mongolian plateau in early 2004, knows the story of the merino wether found on a high country station after avoiding muster and shearing for six years.

Perriam has nailed the story, writing in a relaxed chatty way.

And he is right about the title – the book is the inspiring story of Bendigo Station and there is quite a lot in it about Shrek.

The book outlines the history of the station and of Mr Perriam's family's life in Central Otago, including having to leave their orchard in the Cromwell Gorge ahead of the creation of Lake Dunstan.

It cleverly pulls together the various strains of the station's history and shows how a dusty slice of Central Otago has been knocked down so many times, only to be lifted back up to live another year.

Even the behind the scenes glimpse at the challenges and tribulations that Perriam and other high country farmers went through to get merino wool to the level it has reached was an interesting sidebar.

But perhaps there could have been more about the station and little less of the sheep.

That might feel a bit pedantic but it offered a good opportunity to educate a wider portion of the population both about Bendigo Station, high country farming, and even life in Central Otago. But perhaps there was so much material it was hard to know what to put in and leave out, and yet sometimes there might be a little too much technical information.

Thankfully though, what has not been left out are the outstanding photographs by Otago Daily Times illustrations editor Stephen Jaquiery. With an intimate knowledge of his subject – both Perriam and Bendigo Station – he has created stunning imagery that could have held up in their own book. It is almost worth buying just for the photographs.

- © Fairfax NZ News