TONY ORMAN
A new book The Clarence - People and Places of Waiau-toa ”by rural journalist Tim Fulton shines the spotlight on the Clarence valley, an hour’s drive south of Blenheim. Is the Clarence in Kaikoura or Marlborough. It’s moot point but it’’s roughly midway between the two and thus well known to many Marlburians.
Tim Fulton grew up around farming in Canterbury’s Waimakariri which taught much about rural people and issues. “And a career of more than 20 years as an agricultural journalist has taught me even more,” he adds with a smile. Tim’s name will be familiar as editor of the New Zealand Farmers Weekly for 10 years and he also had an insight into politics working on the Parliamentary press gallery as well as working for the NZ Farmer and Straight Furrow. “Rural journalism exposes you to a huge variety of people and issues, from farm management concerns to international politics. It’s also a job that requires patience, an analytical outlook and good people skills,” he says.
As an author he’s had three books published - a family memoir Straight off the Tussock (2005), Kiwi Farmers Guide to Life (Bateman Books June 2021) and The Clarence – People and Places of Waiau Toa, to be released October 2022. “Everything about the Clarence is daunting,” he writes. That’s accentuated by the dominating outline of New Zealand’s tallest mountain outside of the Southern Alps, commonly known as Tappy but more exactly Tapuae-o-Uenuku. Tim Fulton interviewed all the farmers and familiar names such as the Murrays, Milltons, Kings, Dentons, Godfrey, Reader and others feature.
Tim Fulton touches on the tension between private and public land management in the high country. There are intriguing reflections on the last big sheep muster on Molesworth in 1937, the history and culture of Maori settlement including a long lost kumara growing area near the mouth of the Clarence - but above all, the farmers and their families are the main focus.
It was a labour of love for Tim over three years of research and writing. “Personally, it’s hugely satisfying to have recounted memories of so many people born and raised in the Clarence - and those who have come to love it,” he says.
