A Fabled Land - Legendary rugby photographer and celebrated journalist team up to tell high country station’s legendary story

Random House is back with another one of their stunning high country titles to follow on from the best-selling Castle Hill and Bendigo books. This time it’s telling the story of our most famous station, Mesopotamia.

Note - book publication date 5 October, 2012

If anything could rival Peter Bush aka Bushy’s love of rugby, it’s Mesopotamia — the magnificent and historic South Canterbury station which lies in the Rangitata high country, hard against the Southern Alps.

Bushy first crossed paths with the Mesopotamia runholders, the Prouting family, almost 50 years ago, when they ended up rescuing his brand new rental Land Rover from the clutches of the mighty Rangitata River. Despite this ignominious start — he’s been the butt of endless “North Island townie” jokes ever since — Bushy has remained firm friends with the family.

Bushy’s photos — taken on a series of visits over the years— beautifully capture the great musters of days gone by, the dignity of the shearing gangs, the majestic country, and the distinctive and determined characters who’ve been part of the great Mesopotamia story.

In this stunning new book, A Fabled Land, celebrated journalist and Cantabrian, Bruce Ansley has teamed up with Bushy to reveal a vivid portrait of this truly special, awe-inspiring and seductive place, where 150 years of station life have been played out within the great amphitheatre of the mountains.

Ansley has brilliantly captured the spirit of this great sheep station: from the early pioneers who first braved its harsh winters and searing summers to the ingenuity and drive of the present-day owners, the Prouting family. His description of the landscape is at once poetic and immediate and magnificent, taking the reader right to the heart of the high country and offering a rare insight into the highs and lows of high country life.

In this epic country, the mountains have as much personality as the station’s various owners, from the Proutings, who have now been there for the past 70 years, stretching right back to the station’s founding in 1860 by Samuel Butler in 1860. Escaping the demands of his over-bearing English vicar father, Butler arrived full of wanderlust in 1860, just 24. 

The vast, empty and silent landscape cast its spell over him, as it has done with the subsequent custodians. Butler was soon to purchase a large holding, which he grandly named Mesopotamia.and when he sold his holding of 24,000 hectares three years later to return to England, he doubled his money.  Butler immortalised Mesopotamia in his novel, Erewhon, which he wrote after returning to Britain.

Ansley says that he, like generations of southern folk, grew up captivated by the intoxicating romance of the vast and remote high country stations and the rich stories that lay in the land. He’d wanted to write the Messie story for some time but would only do it with the Prouting’s blessing.

“Bushy had once produced an unpublished photo essay on the Mesopotamia muster and I asked him whether he’d be interested in a book. He jumped at the chance without mentioning that he’d known the family for half a century. When I eventually spoke to Laurie Prouting about a book he said, “If you’ve got Bushy with you it’ll be OK by me.” 

Ansley says that he also had a strong sense of how the book would come together. “I didn’t want the book to be a straight, linear history. It needed to also to relate the modern Mesopotamia to Butler’s embryo station, retracing his footsteps, comparing his life with the present, constantly referencing the station’s history while dealing with its present. ”

The new generation’s fight to restore the station’s fortunes against the backdrop of hardship and this harsh, beautiful country is a dominant theme, he says. “Last year current run holders, Malcolm and Sue Prouting returned a razor-thin profit of $13,000.They were delighted: they were back in the black.”

 Looking upstream to Cloudy Peak, left, with the Main Divide at the end of the valley to the right. Mount Sunday, Edoras in Lord of the Rings, lies between the mountains to the right, and the river.

 Malcolm Prouting junior, the latest of the farming dynasty, at home on his favourite place, Mesopotamia Station.

 Another merino is dragged into position by a shearer, his handset at the ready.

 Mounted musterers with their packhorses and dogs heading for the Stone Hut. Laurie Prouting front, Chris O’Donnell rear.

  Malcolm’s helicopter hovers above the mob, while earthbound musterers and dogs move in.

From the publicist’s album: Bushy “papped” Random House publicist Jennifer Balle taking a snap of Rock, the retired farm dog who spends most of his life these days on the back of the ute supervising the young guns. Jennifer was down with the TVNZ, Sunday crew who are running a Mesopotamia story on publication of the book. 

Bushy and Bruce are taking the magnificent Messie story to heartland NZ on a speaking tour with events in each of the following centres:  Christchurch (4/10), Dunedin (6/10), Gore (7/10), Cromwell (8/10), Wanaka (9/10), Oamaru (10/10), Timaru (11/10), Ashburton (12/10), Wellington (26/10), Nelson (27/10), Gisborne (28/10), Waipawa (29/10), Wanganui (30/10), Feilding (31/10), Palmerston North (1/11) & Masterton (2/11).