Photos and memories at the Otematata Centennial

This is a photo of the front of the old house at Otematata Station which I believe was taken in 1908.The person in the photo I think is Walter Cameron.





Back view of the same house taken at the Centennial 2008.

My father Jim Lousley started working at Otematata Station in 1931 and when he married in 1937 he and my mother lived in what was called "the green cottage" they then shifted in to another cottage which was where Mary and Joe Cameron lived when they first married.This was later replaced by a new house-which I believe is the managers house today.

Apparently the House Keeper had just left the station and Mum started getting up early in the morning and going down to the house to cook the breakfast for Mr Cameron and the musterers.Dad would wait for Malcolm to wake up,dress him then go down to the house for breakfast.

When it started to get cold,Mr Cameron said to Mum that they might as well stay,and so they did for just about 30 years!

So this was the place where I lived the first 20 years of my life and being able to look through the house again after all those years was very special.



Old store rooms-the one on the left had coal,potatoes and wheat for the hens,while the other had just about everything-nails, bolts,screws,saws and stuff to fix anything.!





This shows the "mens dining room"-it seems so much smaller-but I'm told thats often how it is-things seem so large through a childs eyes.The musterers would eat here,while we would eat in the kitchen.Mum often told the story of how she came out of the Maternity Home with me and was cooking for 17 people!





This shows the side of the house-one of the things that amazed me was there was always a pale pink rose outside Mr Camerons bedroom window.Who planted it or how it got there I don't know?
However there it was,still outside the bedroom window and I was told it was pink.





This photo is taken outside the kitchen window-a new window has been put in-the kitchen was always very dark and I suppose that is why there was a sky light.I remember Mum drying washing on a clothes rack up near the sky light-it was a like a ladder and was hauled up with a pulley.
The photo also shows quite clearly the thickness of the walls-I remember when the house was getting wired for electricity-when they took parts of the roof off it was lined with rushes or flax,no doubt to keep the house insulated.


Next week I will add some more photos.
Keep warm and dry!
Deirdre