From its source, the Taiari/Taieri River flows almost entirely around Pātearoa (the Rock & Pillar Range) before discharging into Te Tai-o-Āraiteuru (the Otago coastline). Oral history tells us the Taiari and its various waterways was created by the taniwha Makaka who is immortalised as Pukemakamaka / Saddle Hill. Kāi Tahu ki Otago used all areas of the Taiari / Taieri Plain as evidenced by the hundreds of mahika kai sites associated with the numerous waterways, lakes and wetlands in the area, which was one of the most significant food baskets of the Otago region. The lower Taiari was an important occupation site with the Maitapapa kāinga at Henley. An important route, referred to by J. H. Beattie as a ‘Maori track’, passed through the area. Ngāi Tahu kaumātua recorded Taiari specifically as a kāinga mahinga tuna and kāinga nohoanga (settlement). In July 1844, the Otago Purchase, negotiated by Frederick Tuckett, was signed at Kōpūtai / Port Chalmers. This agreement alienated large areas of land around Dunedin into European hands and saw a native reserve (2,300 acres) established on the north bank of the Taiari awa. The Ōwhiro Stream, formerly known as Scroggs Creek, flows across the Taieri Plain into the Taieri River near the Allanton township, west of Mosgiel. The name Ōwhiro was used to denote the eastern part of the Taiari plain.
The first Europeans to settle in the Taieri area were William and Margaret Jaffray who settled on Saddle Hill above the Taieri Plain in 1848 straight off the Philip Laing along with fellow shipmate John de la Condamine Carnegie. Other settlers began populating the central Dunedin area with few risking the journey out to the Taieri Plain. The first road from Dunedin was constructed in 1849, and with this farms and houses began to be constructed along this road.
As the Taieri Plain was originally wetlands, few settlers took on the daunting task of converting the land to useful agricultural fields in the 1850s. This changed with the arrival of Rev Thomas Burns (1796-1871), on the ship Philip Laing on 15 April 1848. Before arriving in New Zealand, Burns had purchased rural sections on behalf of the Lay Association of Scotland Church Trustees and supporters of the Free Church project, and he chose a large majority from the plain. This purchase of rural sections was completed at the end of 1847 and was not without criticism from those not sure the Taieri Plain was suitable or rich farmland. Upon his first visited the Taieri Plain in 1849 he described it as “a truly magnificent plain”. He continued to make multiple visits out to the Taieri Plain, recording the development of the settlement and progress in the area in his diary. From an early survey map of the Taieri and Waihola Survey District in 1859 Johnstone Farm’s land is in between the Trustees of the Presbyterian Church and various members of the Burns family.
Early in 1851 a property on the plain was taken up by Andrew Todd Jnr (1826-1853). Andrew Todd arrived in Dunedin on the ship Phoebe Dunbar in October 1850. The Phoebe Dunbar was the last ship dispatched to Port Chalmers by the New Zealand Shipping Company. According to family history, he travelled to New Zealand to live in a warmer climate to treat his tuberculosis. The land he worked was acquired from Gilbert Burns, the brother of Rev Burns, who was in a drapery business in Dublin with William Todd, Andrew’s uncle, and Alexander Findlater as a financial partner and all three brought sections on the Taieri via the Lay Association of Scotland.
He wrote to his uncle a few weeks after arriving:
“I have now taken up my abode on the Tiera [sic] Plain eight miles from Dunedin on a section Mr Burns exchanged with me for Mr Findlater’s. The section I have got is a very good one. No timber but I can get timber off the road line running through the bush for a long time, and the reserve timber is not far distant…I have got no house put up yet. I have got timber sawn and expect to have the house up in about a fortnight. I have been living in (what is called a whari) a hut made of sods and thatched with cabbage trees. I find it very comfortable. I find my health improves in the whari.”
Andrew Junior was one of the first settlers to arrive on the Taieri Plain. He got to work on his farm and, along with Robert Hastie, was the first to plough on the Taieri. Todd planted potatoes and acquired two bullocks and four heifers, and after a good first return brought some of them into Dunedin for sale, being the first bullock team brought into Dunedin from the South. He was soon joined by his father Andrew Todd Senior (1796-1873), mother Ann Sangster (1799-1870), sister Jane (1835-1860) and brothers, William (1838-1921) and Robert (1844-1901) on board the Simlah in 1851. Brother, Charles (1829-1865), arrived shortly after in 1852, and another brother, James (1831-1915), arrived in 1858 with his pregnant wife and young daughter. The Todd family was originally from Perthshire, Scotland but had farmed in Ireland from 1840.
The farm was named Johnstown/Johnstone Farm (the name was first referred to in the newspaper in 1853 as “Johnston” and then “Johnstown” in 1854), the name of which still remains today. This may have been named after the Georgian built Johnstown House, Enfield which is near where Andrew Todd Snr was a tenant farmer near Moygaddy Castle, Kildare, County Meath (County Kildare and Meath border each other).
The house that was to be built “in a fortnight” mentioned in Andrew Junior’s 1851 letter was presumably built before his mother and father arrived in September of 1851. Descendants mentioned that a house was under construction when James arrived with his wife on the ship Agra in 1858. “The house was built but the kitchen still had a sod floor. The women were cooking in the kitchen and James was met in Dunedin by his three brothers with a bullock wagon”. This may have been the second iteration of the house on site.
Andrew Jnr suffered from tuberculosis and although he reported his health was improving in the New Zealand climate, he became unwell and died in 1853. He was described in his obituary as one of the first settlers on the Plain, and whose assistance and energetic example contributed to much of the prosperity of the area. The land then passed to Andrew Todd Snr in 1854.
It has been mentioned in local histories that the house at Johnstone Farm was standing in 1861, when it has been told that Rev Thomas Burns described the current house as a
“…well-established farm on the level below the church hill. Andrew Todd had built a large white house, which stands there still. With his former experience of farming in Ireland, Mr Todd had brought this farm into splendid condition and he made agricultural history by harvesting a fine crop of barley in the month of December.”
However, Burns had no Visitation Books in 1861 (his books continue until 1857) so this date does not seem correct.
In December 1864, tenders were called by architect RA Lawson (1833-1902) for the construction of a residence at East Taieri for Andrew Todd. The date of this tender notice suggests that construction on this residence could have started in 1865. The 1897 valuation records report a dwelling on site, constructed from brick and timber with a slate roof valued at £400 ($95,574). The dwelling was recorded as 31 years old, which would give a construction date of 1866. A barn/stable, cowshed, and dairy were also recorded on site.
RA Lawson was one of New Zealand’s pre-eminent architects. He had moved to Dunedin to build First Church in 1862 and then built his practice designing other churches and public buildings but also residential houses in the area. With both the Todd’s and Lawson’s involvement in the Presbyterian Church, the two parties would likely have been known to each other. The 1860s was a time of developing building technology and materials as more became available and as settlers became more established had money to spend on larger homes, as the Todd’s did with Johnstone Farmhouse. Lawson had designed Donald Reid’s Salisbury (List no. 2125) in April of the same year and advertised a tender two years later in 1866 for James Shand, settler, to build his house at his farm Abbotsford, West Taieri (near Allanton). Lawson designed the North Taieri Manse the next year in 1867-1868 and then went onto design the East Taieri Church (List no. 2260) in 1870.
The East Taieri settler community were a tight knit group and relied on each other in the early years to establish themselves and their farms in the new colony. They supported new settlers arriving by giving a day’s worth of ploughing – up to 7 to 9 ploughs would be used to turn several acres and get the land ready for use.
As the earliest settlers on the Taieri Plain, the Todd family became instrumental in the settlement’s establishment. Andrew Todd Snr was an elder of the East Taieri Presbyterian Church and one of the original committee members who instigated the establishment of the first East Taieri School and Church in 1852. He was also chairman of the East Taieri Roading Committee, the first president of the Taieri A&P Society, Justice of the Peace, member of the Provincial Government and a warden of the Hundred of East Taieri. He was an instigator of all things political, religious, and educational on the Taieri and took an active role in the advancement of the area. The Todd barn hosted the Harvest Home in 1854, which was celebrated by the settlers of East Taieri. The barn was decorated for the Harvest Home with fern, flax, and tutu. “Nearly 100 sat down to a sumptuous dinner at 6 o'clock, after which and the usual adjuncts, the floor was cleared for the dance, music, song, alternating till an early hour in the morning”. The farm also hosted many Annual Ploughing Matches.
The whole Todd family were an enterprising group. The children established their own paths, and all did not travel far from Johnstone Farm. James Todd went into the drapery business like his Uncle William in Ireland. He married Ann Cash of Cash Drapery Firm in England and ran a store at East Taieri from April 1861 until December 1862. His farm was named as “Southam” on the Taieri (he sold the farm in 1868) and he died in 1915. Jane Todd married David Oughton, who built a house for them in 1851. He named this ‘Janefield’ (List No 4736) – the house is still standing, and the surrounding area is known as ‘Janefield.’ Jane sadly died of consumption in 1860. Charles married Margaret Shand in 1857 and he died in 1865 at Johnstone Farm after some years as a storekeeper and butcher, which he took over from his brother James. Robert, the youngest son, took over Johnstone Farm when their father died in 1879. William A Todd had a farm called Willow Acres and was known for breeding Leicester sheep.
The Johnstone Farmhouse was built in a Georgian style with Australian jarrah used for the outer walls, Baltic pine flooring, handmade nails, and kauri doors. There is a brick fire wall running through the full width of the house, which is an unusual inclusion. A c.1900 photograph of the farmhouse shows it clad in weatherboards, with quoins at the corners, giving the illusion of channel-jointed stonework. This look was introduced in Wellington in the 1860s and became increasingly popular in the 1880s. Timber was a common construction material, which was sourced locally and imported from Australia. Andrew Todd Jnr mentions in 1851 how he had no timber on his section, but he could access timber off the road line running through the bush for a long time, and the reserve timber is “not far distant”. The township now known as Mosgiel was known as Big Bush and was covered in red, white, and black pine and totora. Brick was less common, being more expensive and the inclusion of a brick ‘fire wall’ in the farmhouse is a relatively unusual feature for a building of this age. There were, however, brick works operating nearby in particular by the settler family Callanders between Springbank and Springbank View in East Taieri as well as Salisbury, North Taieri.
The house was exceptionally designed with five good sized bedrooms and a sunroom on the upper floor. Downstairs was a drawing room, dining room, and kitchen. A staircase connected the two levels, with the effect heightened by Italianate round arched windows. The nails were handmade and the fireplace in what is now the lounge is in black Italian marble imported by Andrew Todd Snr. Locks on the doors were brought from Scotland and most are still in use.
Andrew Todd Snr died in 1879 at Johnstone. Robert inherited the farmhouse and all other property owned and leased by his father in 1879. Like his father, he was heavily involved in the Taieri Agricultural and Pastoral Association, of which he was president for some years, and took an active part in church work and educational matters. Robert was also a volunteer and a member of the Otago Hussars. He married Jane Paton, daughter of John Paton, who arrived in 1863, by the ship Silistria of North Taieri. Robert died in 1901, and the title passed to his son, another Andrew Todd.
Andrew Todd continued to farm at Johnstone and was involved in many of the associations. He was a member of the Taieri Agricultural and Pastoral Association and Society including a stint as President, and a member of the East Taieri Farmers Union and the East Taieri Rifle Volunteers. After doctors’ orders to move north, due to his ill health in 1910, the property was leased to George McDonald in May 1909.
McDonald Family (1909-1960)
George McDonald was born in 1850 in Coull, Aberdeenshire, Scotland and arrived in New Zealand in 1868 on the ship Helenslee. He originally farmed in Inchclutha on the farm ‘Matua Bank’ and married Annie Dutton in 1877. They moved to East Taieri in 1907. George died aged 68 in 1917 and after George’s death the ownership of Johnstone was transferred to his wife Annie in August 1922. Following Annie’s death in 1938, the property was transferred to siblings Mary Rebecca (known as May) McDonald and John Thomas Charles McDonald as tenants in common. John worked as a farm assistant and farmer on Johnstone Farm from at least 1916 until 1958 when he died.
At some point during the McDonald’s ownership, roughcast was applied to the exterior of the house and the third chimney at the rear of the house was removed. While the farm continued production, the farmhouse became run down and trees overgrown. John McDonald’s share was transferred to his wife Violet Constance McDonald in 1959 after his death.
Rutherford Family (1960-Present)
The property was purchased by Stanley Rutherford, nephew of John and May McDonald, in January 1960 and began its transformation. Rutherford and his wife (Marion Heather Rose known as Heather) were also active in the community, holding various roles in the East Taieri Presbyterian Church and school. Rutherford was also a former bomber pilot and RAF Officer during World War II, receiving the DFM during active service in North Africa and Italy. Mrs Rutherford worked as a telephonist intermittently throughout her life.
The Rutherford’s undertook the large task of restoring Johnstone Farmhouse with a young family. The family had been living in Northland, New Zealand when they had the opportunity to purchase Johnstone Farm. The state of the farmhouse when Heather first saw the property was dire – no electricity on the first floor, animals were roaming throughout, sheep dip and other toxic chemicals were kept near the house and it was very dilapidated. Under the Rutherford’s ownership, the homestead was restored with fittings and fixtures to the era of the house. The wooden curtain rods and rings in the living room were sourced from Francis Scott Pillan’s home at Inchclutha who had arrived on the John Wickliffe. The original dark stained glass in the stair windows was replaced with clear leadlight around 1965 brightening the space. All bedrooms were relined, with wardrobes built into the rooms, and some original ceilings were replaced. The other rooms and hallway were also renovated, with walls throughout the house relined as the original plaster and kauri had deteriorated beyond repair. In the 1960s, the kitchen was renovated with a new floor, cabinetry and plaster ceiling. The ceiling was lowered approximately 18 inches (45 cms) and covered with a plaster ceiling fixed to the original beams. The Rutherford’s youngest son, was named Todd as a tribute to the original family and history of the house. He was the only child to be born in the house in the twentieth century.
Two original windows were replaced, and one large window was added to the north-western elevation which looks out on the backyard and garden. The kitchen floor was re-piled and replaced and laid with linoleum with new cabinetry. The garden was redeveloped with silver birch trees planted along the driveway and a Leylandii hedge along the south-west boundary of the house. During the 1960s, the original Todd barn and diary were demolished, and a new farm shed, and dairy shed erected. Some trees near to the houses were felled as they had grown large against it, with some the timber being later repurposed within the house.
The accessway to the farmhouse was shifted circa 1968-1970, when property was taken by the Crown to expand the nearby railway and recontour the Ōwhiro Stream into a straight channel. The original driveway accessed the property from Gladstone Road and crossed the railway line.
Following Stanley Rutherford’s death in 1972, the farm was leased until 1992. Mrs Rutherford continued to renovate the house and often opened the home for tours. In 1996, daughter Alison Rutherford, took over farming the property and eventually purchased it in 2002. Over this time, several trees planted by the Todd and McDonald families were recognised on the Dunedin City Council District Plan. Further trees and shelter belts have been planted since, including riparian plantings along the Ōwhiro Stream.
The house was renovated between 2003 to 2015, with all the rooms redecorated. A new bathroom was installed in 2003, replacing a bedroom on the first floor. The existing bathroom window was repaired and retained and refitted with safety glass. The floor was covered with particle board and vinyl and colonial skirting and cornices were added to match the existing ones.
In 2005, renovations were carried out in the kitchen, dining, and bathroom on the ground floor. In the kitchen and dining areas, the ceiling was insulated and replaced at the same height as the existing. The walls were insulated and relined and all windows were replaced with double glazed units. In 2005, Alison renovated the kitchen and included macrocarpa timber in the joiner that was milled from trees planted by the Todd family. The bathroom on the ground floor was removed, and French doors were installed in the kitchen, where the bathroom was, to form a new tiled entry and T&G lined porch. A wall separating the kitchen and hallway (which provided access to the downstairs bathroom, living room, and bedroom) was removed.
