Waipuna Homestead in the upper Grey River Valley, was the home of Samuel Megitt Mackley (1829-1911), the first European settler to establish a farm in Westland.
Although the West Coast of the South Island was the first part of New Zealand sighted by a European, Abel Tasman in 1642, it was one of the last areas to be settled by Maori because of its inhospitable coastline and inland mountain barrier. When Europeans first ventured into Westland in the nineteenth century the local Maori, Poutini Ngaitahu, had no permanent settlements in the Mawhera, later Grey River Valley, though they frequently made summer visits from the favoured river mouth, coastal bases to gather fern roots, snare birds and catch eels. Extensive valleys like this one were also used as travel routes by Maori.
European settlement on the West Coast was similarly slow because of the difficulty of access and the rugged terrain. The Nelson Provincial Government which administered the northern section of the region sent explorers into the area to investigate the potential of the area for the extraction of minerals and for settlement. James Mackay (1831-1912) assistant native secretary to the Nelson Government, was instructed in 1858 to purchase Ngai Tahu titles to the Kaikoura block, most of what would be the Marlborough province, and the Arahura block, virtually all of the West Coast. Fluent in Maori, he was able to negotiate sales agreements, allowing only rather restricted native reserves. He succeeded first with the purchase of the Kaikoura area and on 21 May 1860 executed the deed of sale for the 7,500 acre (3,035 hectares) Arahura block, extending from Kahurangi Point in the north and south to Milford. Mackay also established a route from Nelson down the Buller River and then branching across to meet the Grey Valley, thus avoiding the precipitous coastal route taken by earlier explorers. Meantime, the Canterbury Provincial Council was eagerly seeking a usable pass over the Southern Alps from Canterbury.
A witness to the deed of sale of the Arahura block at Mawhera Pa was Samuel Meggitt Mackley, (1830-1911) who had met up with Mackay while making independent explorations of the region. Mackley, born in Leeds in 1830, was the son of a doctor and had begun medical studies but because of poor health decided to migrate to New Zealand. He arrived in Nelson c. 1855 and worked there and in Collingwood as a chemist while looking for land to purchase so that he might take up life as a farmer. By this time little land was available and he journeyed further south to the West Coast. When he met Mackay near Okarito he found him suffering from an incapacitating leg infection caused by speargrass wounds. Mackley's medical training enabled him to treat this successfully and his patient gratefully accepted him as an assistant in his travels south to Jackson's Bay. On their return to Mawhera, Mackley was asked to be one of the three witnesses on the Arahura Deed of Settlement
Mackley had carefully examined the potential of the West Coast valleys for farming activities. Back in Nelson, on 25 June 1860 he applied for about 4,000 acres (1,620 hectares) of grass flats in the Pohaturoa or Upper Grey Valley. There was other good fertile land in this valley but he selected this locale which required less clearance and he considered it had potential for gold as well as for farming. He had noted traces of gold in the Buller while returning to Nelson and later claimed he was the first to discover West Coast gold. In 1862 he moved from Nelson to the West Coast with his wife Mary Elizabeth Allan Trist (1836-1915) and their first child Emily, establishing the first farm on the western side of the Southern Alps. Their first home on the property they called Waipuna, was just 12x9 metres, made largely of manuka poles and bark. The attractions of the chosen site, with views out across the river flats, remain apparent today. Early in 1863 Mackley travelled to Christchurch via the Arahura Saddle (Amuri Pass), bought 50 sheep and six in-calf heifers which he drove back to the West Coast by the same route. Waipuna Station prospered, with local markets boosted by the Grey Valley gold rush in 1865 and the development of quartz mining around Reefton five years later. Produce including vegetables, butter and bread were sold to the influx of prospectors. In1866 he returned to England to settle family affairs, probably bringing household goods home with him. In 1870 the manuka home was replaced by a more substantial four-roomed cottage of pit-sawn timber to accommodate the growing family.
About 1871/2 a substantial two-storeyed residence, designed by William Craven Mirfin, was built adjacent to the cottage. Yorkshire born Mirfin, who had migrated to Australia and then to Nelson, purchased land at Otututu, near Ikamatua where his son established a farm shortly after the 1862 date of the Mackleys' farm. The two families were well acquainted, the first visit by Mrs Mirfin to the Mackley homestead causing astonishment to the young children who had never seen another European woman. It was announced to their mother that 'something like you is coming!' William Mirfin Senior had skills in engineering and it is recorded that he designed a lighthouse and gasworks. The plans he first drew for a new Mackley homestead did not provide for retention of the cottage and some further alterations were made when the house was constructed; the house was enlarged slightly, three rather than two windows were included along the north and south facades and the stairway's position was moved to the other side of the main hall. Besides providing plenty of space for the family that grew to include eleven children, it became a landmark in the Waipuna Valley and was also noted for its surrounding hedgerows, trees and gardens.
Samuel Mackley was an industrious and well respected man. He became a prominent figure on the West Coast; representing the Grey Valley in Nelson during the period of Provincial Government. In 1875 his occupations were listed in Crerar's Directory and West Coast Almanac as 'hotel keeper, brewer, butcher, store keeper, gold buyer and farmer'. His family later described their grandparents in affectionate and respectful terms, recalling Mackley's collection of both surgical and dental instruments and his work in healing visiting patients. They remembered the formality of dinners with the best dress worn and the grand silver and china that were used for notable guests, while children dined with servants in the kitchen. It was the Mackleys who established the first school in the district, providing books and accommodation for the teacher (The large room at the north-west corner of the house's upper floor is noted as 'School Room' on Mirfin's plan for the homestead.) The Cyclopedia of 1905 states that Mr Mackley's farm 'has been developed from its wild and natural condition into a good grazing run, on which he depastures 300 head of cattle and 1,800 sheep'.
On his death in 1911, management passed to his son Ernest while family trustees retained ownership. The following years were less successful for the farm and Ernest died in 1946. George Herbert Ferguson who was married to Samuel Mackley's granddaughter, Irene, one of Ernest's nieces, came to the property as manager with their son George Keith, who shortly took control. In 1959 the younger George and his wife purchased the property from the trustees, retaining this long term family ownership. They soon built a new homestead and use of the old homestead decreased, being used occasionally by shearers and hunters. By 1971 Waipuna had grown and prospered, becoming 'the largest sheep and cattle station in Westland province and a leading agricultural showplace of the West Coast'. Since then the farming operations have successfully diversified to include agro-forestry and for a period until recently gold mining was carried out. Some three decades ago, the family had decided that because of the old building's decaying timber and general condition it should be demolished, but this has not occurred, perhaps because of the place it holds in their history as well as that of Westland.
