Riccarton & the Deans Family

Riccarton and the Deans Family History and Heritage

By Joanna Orwin

Bateman - Hardback - RRP $49.99

Nestled among specimen trees in suburban Christchurch is a large timber-built house dating from colonial times. But this is no ordinary house – Riccarton House is part of an unbroken span of natural and cultural history that stretches from pre-human times to the present.

Award-winning author Joanna Orwin encapsulates the natural and social history of Canterbury in this important book and spent nearly 300 hours sourcing its numerous illustrations.

The story of the first two generations of the Dean’s family at Riccarton is the vital link that connects both natural and cultural history to the present day, a history that revolves around the last remnant of kahikatea floodplain forest in Canterbury. This forest was an integral part of a southern Maori lifestyle based on the region’s wide-ranging natural resources. The pioneer Deans brothers were equally drawn to the forest and the surrounding plains. They established the first successful farm in Canterbury, which flourished in the shelter of the forest.

Riccarton and the Deans Family is not just about the Deans brothers’ adventures as battling pioneers, it also include the poignant story of a young woman whose sense of duty and perseverance ensured both the forest and the brothers’ legacy would endure. After both Deans brothers died young, in tragic circumstances, Jane Deans, barely 30, not physically robust and left with a baby in an unforgiving and foreign land, spent the next 20 years managing her son’s inheritance. A remarkable woman, her competent oversight ensured that he inherited a substantial estate. 

The two surviving houses built for the Deans family at Riccarton, their landscaped grounds, and the remnant of kahikatea forest that frames them have national historic and cultural significance. The two houses have given the Deans a place in New Zealand’s architectural history. The second dwelling built for the Deans brothers in 1843 is now the oldest surviving building on the Canterbury plains. The three architectural stages of its successor, Riccarton House, serve as a tangible reminder of the family’s progressive contribution to the social history and heritage of Canterbury. The many heritage trees planted by Jane Deans are survivors of one of New Zealand’s earliest colonial landscape plantings. The preservation of the remnant of kahikatea forest that constitutes Riccarton Bush was one of the first conservation efforts in New Zealand

The Deans family gift of Riccarton Bush to the people of Canterbury 100 years ago started a new chapter: the forest’s recovery and the restoration of both historic houses. When the 2010–11 Canterbury earthquakes badly damaged Riccarton House, this special place returned to prominence with the Riccarton Bush Trust’s heroic efforts to secure the house’s future.

About the author:

Christchurch writer Joanna Orwin has a background in plant ecology and 30 years’ experience as an editor in environmental sciences. She now works as a consultant researcher, writer and editor on interpretation projects that encompass environmental sciences and Maori or European history. Her lifelong interests in New Zealand’s landscapes and history are reflected in award-winning books that range from social and environmental history to historical and adventure novels for children and young adults. She has been short-listed many times in the New Zealand Children’s Book Awards, twice winning her category. Both her previous non-fiction titles for adults won New Zealand awards in History.