The History of Oruawharo

Oruawharo was completed in 1879 for Sydney Johnston and his bride Sophia Lambert. Designed by a Wellington architect and built by D McLeoud of Waipukurau for around £4000, it was the heart of a 27,000-acre station which originated with an 1853 purchase by Sydney’s father John, a Scot.

A contemporary reporter described Oruawharo as having “everything that administers to domestic comfort and convenience”, “baths with hot water apparatus”, “culinary departments with apparatus of the most approved kind”, and three staircases.

The kauri, totara and matai construction, has weathered 139 years and apart from the removal of the servants’ wing which housed 12 domestic staff and eight gardeners, Oruawharo today is virtually as Sydney and Sophia knew it.

Sydney established the extensive woodlands which remain a feature of the property and in 1899 extended the homestead with a grand ballroom and further bedrooms, taking the total number to the present-day 12.

Oruawharo became a centre for Victorian and Edwardian ‘gentry’ social life; constant house parties were entertained with tennis, croquet and picnics, there were horse races and the hunt was hosted with lavish breakfasts and teas.

It also played a role shaping the emerging district and nation. Takapu was established on part of the station and the Johnstons became ongoing benefactors to the town.

During World War I a territorial army camp at Oruawharo witnessed the birth of the lemon-squeezer (more ...), and as a vice regal holiday retreat, many a titled lady and gentleman stayed.

Apart from four years in the 1960s after personal tragedy led to the family gifting it to the Catholic Church, Oruawharo remained in family hands until Peter and Dianne Harris purchased it in 2000.

The Story of Oruawharo

The story of Oruawharo, near Takapau in the central Hawke’s bay began in 1853. When John Johnston (later Hon. J. Johnston), following a visit to Hawke’s bay with his cousin, Alex St. Clair Inglis and a friend John Harding, successfully applied for a lease of 9,280 acres of land. Other areas were added over the years to the initial holding and, at one time, the property comprised 17,726 acres.

John Johnston arrived in Wellington in 1841 on the ‘Prince of Wales’ bringing with him his wife and three children. After a period in business, he founded his own firm – Johnston and Co., general merchants, which is now part of the Dominion brewery empire. Wellington’s Johnston Street recalls his name to present and future generations.

For many years, John Johnston took an active part in public affairs – he served for example almost continuously from 1857 as a member of the legislative council – and applied himself closely to his business interests. He was himself not personally associated with the Oruawharo property, having granted grazing rights to his cousin, Inglis and to Charles Gully (a relative of John Gully, the well known artist). When they went to their Springhill station (at Onga Onga) in 1865, Johns second son Sydney (born in Wellington in 1841 and educated at the Jesuit College of Stonyhurst, Lancashire) took over the management of his father’s property. He was at Oruawharo at least as early as 1862. For about three years he lived in a primitive hut on the property until his marriage to Sophia Lambert, of the nearby Tangarawa Station in 1865.

Under Sydney’s management, considerable changes were made to the property including the ploughing of land for the first time, the growing of oats and wheat, the construction of a sheep dip and the erection of fences. There was also some stocking of the property with cattle. About this time, a cottage was erected which was enlarged in 1870. Despite the demands of Oruawharo, Sydney Johnston was also manager of his fathers ‘Tamumu’ station near Waipawa, which had been bought in 1865, as well as another of his father’s properties, at Clive.

Major milestones were reached in 1879 when Sydney leased the Oruawharo property from his father and then, on 2 October moved into his new house – the present Oruawharo homestead. This was built primarily of Kauri and Matai with some use being made of pumice between the rooms for the absorption of noise. The local newspaper reporter wrote the following description...

Mr. Sydney Johnston’s new house at Takapau, now almost completed, is a spacious, solid and elegant building. It is sixty feet by seventy feet with a twenty-five foot stud. The front is beautifully set off with large bay windows and a balustrade in level with the upper story. On the side facing the railway there is a large balcony, with a floor three inches thick, and tightly caulked. A brick stair overlaid with concrete and having a splendid rail, leads to the entrance vestibule, next to which there is a large hall. The building comprises twenty-one rooms, all firmly plastered. The nurseries were dadoes, as precautionary measures against juvenile tendencies to scratch plaster. To the upper story there is access by three different stairs. The culinary departments with apparatus of the most approved kind. Baths with warm water apparatus are also provided. In short, everything that tends to administer to domestic comfort and convenience is provided. The whole structure combines elegance of design with masterly workmanship and solidity. Mr. Tringham of Wellington was the architect and Mr. D. McLeoud of Waipukurau the contractor for all the work, the plastering being sub-let to Mr. McGuire of Wellington. The workmanship reflects the highest credit on Mr. McLeoud and all others associated with him. The house is situated about quarter of a mile from the railway line at the base of a gentle undulating ridge planted with trees. The situation can be made both beautiful and picturesque.

Despite the size of the original structure, Johnston enlarged it in 1899 by the addition of bedrooms and a ballroom, his last being provided with a magnificent carved ceiling and fireplace surround, the work being done by craftsmen brought out from Bavaria. It is, perhaps, not surprising that Oruawharo is one of the largest private homes ever to be built in New Zealand. By this time, too, Sydney Johnston was the owner of the property, having inherited the place on his father’s death in 1887.

In the hey-day of Oruawharo, the Johnston’s employed a domestic staff of twelve including a parlourmaid, cook, lady’s maid, chauffeur (the family owning a car – a Decauville – in 1907) kitchen maid and gardeners.

There are reports of guests for house parties arriving by train at the nearby Takapau Railway Station and then being brought to the house by horse drawn vehicles. Also the family had an objection to drying greens, consequently the family’s wash was railed each Monday to a laundry in Palmerston North and back again on the following Friday. As early as 1879, races were held at Oruawharo and, for a time, the town boasted two racecourses, visitors attending the meetings coming as a matter of course by rail.

Oruawharo was at the time the venue of a Territorial Army training camp. Preparations were well underway at the end of 1913 when a site was surveyed sufficient to house 6,000 men under canvas. Several special trains brought the troops in April 1914 and away again after the exercise. Unfortunately bad weather caused considerable unrest among the participants. The exercise ended on the 6^th May with the battle of Oruawharo being fought complete with the “big shots” of the day being present.

Over the years, the property has been reduced in size and there are now some 2,850 acres in the hands of the family and carrying some 10,000 sheep and 480 head of cattle.

With Sydney Johnston’s death in 1917 while on one of his several visits to the U.K., the property went to his daughter, Miss Agnes Beatrice Johnston who, five years later, married J.C.Rolleston. Their son Christopher was born at Oruawharo in 1923. He went to England to finish his education in 1938, returning to New Zealand in 1947 after military service with the Grenadier Guards in Germany. He took over the management of the property in 1952. Early the following year he married Jennifer Hyde – their daughter being born at the end of the year. As 1953 was the centenary of the property, arrangements were well advanced to celebrate the occasion when, on 19 March, Christopher Johnston was killed in a tractor accident on the property. His tragic death caused a sense of shock to be felt throughout the district and, of course, the celebrations were immediately cancelled.

After the death, in 1965, of Mrs. Rolleston (senior), the homestead and 62.5 acres of land were given to the Roman Catholic Church with the object of eventually establishing there a preparatory school for Roman Catholic boys. The last report we have on file is that of the house being used as a country restaurant with the balance of the farm lands being held in trust for Miss C.J.M Rolleston, daughter of Jennifer and the late Christopher Rolleston, who is living in England.

View more historic pictures from Oruawharo homestead