Making Sheep Country. Mt Peel Station and the Transformation of the Tussock Lands

From the 1840s through World War I, the South Island of New Zealand was transformed as large tracts of land were claimed, native vegetation was burned, and large-scale sheep farming was established for wool and, later, meat production. This record focuses on one case study in particular—John Barton Acland and the Mt Peel Station in South Canterbury, New Zealand—to explain how the pastoralists modified their environment. Providing ample insight into the farmers’ world, from the sheep they bred to the rabbits, droughts, and floods they fought, this history is a sweeping portrait of the economic and ecological transformation of New Zealand.

Robert Peden is an independent historian, a member of the Professional Historians’ Association of New Zealand, and a former shepherd and manager of high-country sheep stations. He is a contributor to Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand.