I was born in Milton at the then hospital which is now the resthome.  My father Colin had purchased Forthill farm on return from WW2.  Until I was 8 years old I lived at Forthill and attended Milburn Primary School. My family moved to Milton to live in my Grandfather’s house in Stewart Road after he died and I then went to Milton Primary and onto Tokomairiro High School.  I was not very academic and I left school at 16 to start working on the Forthill farm of 740 acres and also the Doon block of 680 acres. I enjoyed the outdoors and was a keen deer hunter. 

In 1976 I did a stint working for DOC as an assistant ranger at Mt Aspiring National Park for a season and then returned back to farming. I went into a partnership with dad in 1978 purchasing half of the Forthill Property.

I met Wendy at the beginning of 1976 when she was working as a rousie for Spike James earning money to go on AFS to California. On her return the romance continued and she secured a teaching job at Milton Primary School. We were married in 1982 and have 3 daughters Kate, Sophie and Julia.

In 1985 we purchased the other half of Forthill farm and also ventured into deer farming. I built up to winter 400 hinds and 400 meat and velvet stags. In the mid 1990’s we bought 400 acres of a neighbour’s property and were able to push stock numbers up to 5000 stock units with a mix of sheep, deer and cattle.

We moved into our home at Forthill at the end of 1993. Prior to that we had been living at Lo-debar as Dad had purchased that farm from my uncle in 1982 and I was kept busy with the day to day running of that 1000 acre property also. The Doon block was sold in 1984. Lo-debar was sold in 1993 and we lived for 9 months in a cottage on the corner of Barnes Road and Circle Hill Road.

Other than farming I played golf and when the squash club opened I really enjoyed playing especially in the interclub competitions. I also took part in school camps and ski trips and high school tramps. I enjoy boating and fishing and getting time away at our holiday house in Lake Hawea.

In 2002 I started with the Rotary Tramps and Bike Trails and have been doing them ever since with only missing one season due to an injury.

I have also been helping out with the high school trail bike rides for nearly 20 years. On one of these I had an injury to my hip which caused a bit of grief and eventually led to getting a hip replacement 10 years ago.

In 2016 we made the decision to sell Forthill and purchased 145 acres in Back Road. We already owned 15 acres around the Stewart Road house and this fitted in very neatly to form our new Lifestyle Block as I like to call it. We now run only 700 sheep.

We have 8 grandchildren. 5 of them live in Stewart Road so they now have a very big backyard to play in and ride their motorbikes around in. Our 3 youngest grandchildren live in Balclutha and are also always keen to visit us on the farm. We recently had all the family staying in our Hawea house over New Year and enjoyed spending time with them boating and biking.