Colin Macnicol - Back to his roots - Colin the community man

Colin Macnicol doesn’t like to sit idle, so when he and wife Jean supposedly ‘semi-retired’ from their Southland deer farm to Arrowtown in 2006, Colin got busy.

A former Southland Deer Farmers Association chairman and national selection panelist, long time Rotarian and talented musician, Colin’s probably best known locally for his jive - churning out old favourites on the piano accordion on the back of the Arrow Miners Band truck. His warm, friendly farmer smile has also calmed many a first day nerve on the Arrowtown and Wakatipu High school buses for almost 20 years. His farmer skills soon had him driving for Gibbston deer farmer Murray McWhirter and then carting grapes in the truck for local wine growers.

Colin has emotional family ties to Arrowtown, his dad the brother of Mount Aurum Station’s legendary Archie Macnicol. “My dad, Duncan, was born in Arrowtown - the first of seven kids, taken home to Skippers on a horse with his mother, aged three weeks.” He managed Mount Aurum Station from the age of 16 or 17 until he was 21. He then managed southern stations, eventually farming in Woodlands.

At 15, Colin discovered a love of music after taking up the piano accordion - “an excuse to drive the car to Kennington on the outskirts of Invercargill for lessons.” A natural, he was quickly invited into an adult band with renowned musician ‘Mrs Lemin’. Colin and his high school mates formed a teenage dance band - The Naughty Knights, playing dances and parties at almost every hall in Southland for some 30 years. Eventually Colin graduated to the electric organ.

A farm boy at heart, he was heavily involved in Young Farmers and later Federated Farmers. He soon met his match in Jean, a farmer’s daughter from Mokoreta, and well-travelled, champion debater. “Don’t argue!” he grins. When they married in 1968 Colin’s dad helped them onto a 400-acre (161ha) dairy and sheep farm. “We milked our own cows and made our own butter in those early days”, he says. They’ve always been a team so when Colin, ever the innovator, wanted to try the new craze of deer farming in 1978 Jean was right behind him. Lamb prices had been low, so they bought three live capture hinds for a hefty sum, borrowing the money from “The Firm”.

Always up for a challenge, Colin was then the first to host a young French agricultural exchange student. “We’d be driving around the farm sorting out a lot of swear words”, he chuckles.

At 62, Colin had a heart attack, also losing his only sister around the same time. “I thought, ‘I’ve got things to do before I finish up’.” With no family keen to take over, they sold the farm near Dacre and moved to Arrowtown where Colin, stent in place, had a new lease on life.

“My first job was driving the Arrowtown School bus,” he says. “I love the kids. They’re great.” On his first day the first stop was Hogan Gully Road. “I was being very careful, and I picked up a boy who could recite all the Roman Generals. I asked him to help me with the stops as it was my first day,” Colin says. “He said, ‘Yes, I know, cos you went so slow down the hill and around the corner’,” Colin grins. On another occasion a first-day newcomer quietly hung on until the last stop at Gibbston, last one on the bus, where he finally asked, ‘Is this Jack’s Point?’

Colin’s served as a valued Rotarian for almost 40 years - Invercargill East and Queenstown, including a stint as president down south. As chairman of the Southland Deer Farmers Association, he oversaw one thousand members and is now a life member, also representing Southland on the National Selection and Appointments Panel in Wellington.

In Queenstown he landed the dream job, carting millions of dollars’ worth of deer for high profile, ex-Otautau deer farmer Murray (McWhirter), who dealt in trophy stags.

Colin is a well-known foundation member of Arrowtown MenzShed, has served on the Arrowtown Village Association, Queenstown Districts Historical Society and Arrowtown RSA, somehow fitting in time to help Jean with Meals on Wheels.

However, Colin’s probably best known for his lively renditions and beaming smile radiating from the back of that unmistakable old Arrow Miners Band truck. “I’ve done that since I arrived. There are only three or four of us left now,” he grins, just a few months out from his 80th birthday.