Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Farm conflicts in tourist hot spot

Neal Wallace
A billionaire lives on a lifestyle property on one side of Chris and Emma Dagg’s Queenstown farm. On the other is a multi-millionaire.
Reading Time: 3 minutes

The exclusive Millbrook Resort is nearby and actor Tom Cruise was a neighbour while filming in New Zealand.

The Daggs’ 424ha farm in the Wakatipu Basin between Queenstown and Arrowtown includes some of NZ’s most sort after land for residential development.

A short drive from Queenstown, the rural setting provides a desirable place for the rich and famous to live, putting pressure on landowners in a region short of land, houses and sections.

Dagg concedes 95% of people in his situation would have sold their farm and moved on but his family’s ties to the district run deep.

“It’s home. 

“I’m fifth generation born and bred in the district on both sides of the family.”

The crossbred sheep and beef farm, which sits under Coronet Peak ski field, is one of only a couple of full-time farms that remain in the basin though Lake Wakatipu is flanked by high country stations.

Dagg says as a school boy he remembers the whole Wakatipu basin being farmed and crops growing on the fertile soils of Frankton Flats.

Today the basin is a series of lifestyle blocks, resorts and residential homes and the crop-growing land at Frankton is buried under the airport, roads, houses and commercial buildings.

“It is ironic that some of the best land in the district is under concrete.”

With the average house price in Queenstown Lakes District at $1.1 million and the average section price $500,000 there is a housing shortage for workers and their families while the desirability of living in Queenstown fuels the appetite for land that can be developed.

Dagg says the Queenstown Lakes District Council has recognised the loss of rural landscape in the basin and proposed a zoning variation to the district plan that would mean the smallest lot 90% of his farm could be subdivided into would be 80ha.

In the meantime, housing construction in the rural zone continues with a five bedroom house built on a 3ha block near the Dagg farm, which is also right beside a major access point for stock.

“If they want to retain the rural nature of the area, why do they allow more building and more subdivision?”

Dagg says his future is largely dictated by what happens around him, the increased traffic, soaring land prices affecting rates and the expectations of neighbours who have little or no understanding of farming.

“You’ve got to be more and more proactive.”

People are generally considerate but there is always an exception.

Shifting stock across a road requires multiple people and is done early in the morning.

Recently he had to physically block a driver who tried to push through a herd of 30 cattle.

He has had some complaints about fertiliser application, including having the police called after allegations fertiliser was landing in creeks.

Dagg says it was an organic, fish-based product and not his only complaint but the helicopter’s GPS proves they avoid creeks and waterways.

Large areas of the high country have been sold to wealthy non-farming people looking for solitude and privacy.

Dagg says music producer Mutt Lange, who owns a swathe of land from Coronet Peak to Wanaka, gave 50,000ha to the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust in 2014.

The removal of stock from that land means control of weeds such as wilding pines previously done by sheep is now done with toxins.

The contrast between a working farm and what a community desires is highlighted to Dagg by a request to build a cycle trail through the middle of his farm.

Not only will it impinge on their privacy and management but, despite assurances from the track’s backers, there will inevitably be antisocial behaviour by some users such as defecating, chasing stock or bringing dogs.

“They don’t understand,” he says of the request.

Dagg says despite the pressure and challenges of being in a farming minority he chooses to farm in the Wakatipu Basin and wouldn’t do anything else.

“If I don’t like it, I can leave.”

For a district that was developed first on gold mining then farming, Dagg says it still has a role and most of his neighbours and those living locally accept that.

“Not all people are bad, it’s just that there isn’t a large farming community here so that makes it a bit different.”

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