Fourth Generation Frankton Farmer Bill Grant
Turning back time
They don’t come much more ‘local’ than Frankton farmer Bill Grant, who was driving the tractor while his dad fed out hay from age four, through much harsher winters than we have now.
A large chunk of that original 330ha Grant family farm on the Frankton Flats and hillside opposite has since been sold, much of it to Queenstown Airport.
It’s a far cry from the original block Bill’s grandfather Robert Grant purchased in 1913, one of just three farms beyond Frankton. His great grandfather Robert (Senior) was the first to farm at Lake Johnson, where his stone cottage remains still stand. “He was killed after being dragged by a team of horses, three or four months before my grandfather was born,” says Bill. “Grandad worked for the guy Lee, whose memorial is along Ladies Mile. He asked for a pay rise as he was getting married. He gave him half a crown more a week (25 cents) and said not to tell the other staff,” grins Bill.
Tragedy struck in 1950 when Bill’s Uncle George was killed in a car accident along Jim’s Way. His parents - mum pregnant, survived. “Dad (John) was secretary of the Shotover Hall Committee and had biked down to unlock the hall for a Friday night dance. Uncle George was driving them home.”
John bought his other brother out of the farm in the early 1950s. Winters were much colder then. “Dad biked to Shotover School (under Lower Shotover Bridge). One year he could walk across the Shotover River as it was frozen over. Mum’s family, the Daggs, farmed under Coronet Peak and the snow once covered the top of the fenceline, then froze.”
Bill went to Queenstown School with Carlos Bagrie’s father, whose family farmed Queenstown Hill. At five Bill recalls riding the school bus to John Bagrie’s Tucker Beach birthday party. “His mother had made mice with licorice tails and I still remember John trying to suck up the tail through a straw.”
Bill was just 11 when he joined the Frankton Golf Club in 1958 – the day the course opened on its present site. “Before that it was across the airport runway and the clubhouse was where New World is. I started there, aged nine, with Mum.” Two fairways crossed over the grass runway. “We were unique in world golf as we had to stand still so the pilots could see us and dodge round us when they hit the ground in their light planes.”
By the time Bill left high school at 16 he was on an 18 Handicap and had competed in the Southland Schoolboy Championships.
He won his first senior championship at Frankton in 1967, going on to net five more titles, also five Arrowtown Senior Men’s titles.
A young entrepreneur, Bill picked rosehips along Battery Hill, filling 14kg sugar bags and selling them to the factory. “They gave rosehip to the babies. I got 30 shillings a bag.” He also ran a lawn mowing business for Frankton crib owners, earning 25 cents an hour, and pulled carrots at the neighbouring market garden. In his 20s, while working on the family farm, Bill was a shearing contractor.
Not one for heading to the pub, golf was his focus, which led to meeting wife of 48 years, Tilly. “Hylton Hensman and Dad launched the project to build Kelvin Heights Golf Course in 1969, opening in 1975. Dad worked there full-time, taking his money out in debentures, and I gave up shearing to build with him for $1 an hour. Beau Norris built the clubhouse for $3 an hour.” The entire development cost some $100,000 with members raising about $40,000 in debenture holders through local businesses, and the council pitching in about $10,000. Many a Housie and card night helped boost the coffers and it was here that Bill - the first secretary of the Frankton Fire Brigade, met Tilly, plucking up the courage to invite her to the Queenstown Fire Brigade annual dinner.
About 50 years ago as the airport grew and DC3s required more runway, the Grants sold off 52.6ha, piece by piece. “We got way above land value, but it’s worth millions and millions now,” says Bill. “If we’d have said ‘no’, it would’ve been claimed under the Public Works Act.”
Bill’s been down to a 2 Handicap in golf and represented Otago in the Masters in 2002, notching up many South Island championship wins.
He’s served on the board of Golf Otago for 15 years and clocked five holes in one since the 1970s, Tilly scoring three.
At 76 he still plays three to four times weekly, along with bowls, and is a Life Member of Queenstown Golf Club and the Lake Hayes A & P Society – a sheep steward for many years.
He’s survived a ute, laden with bales of hay, rolling over him, but farming’s not all been tough going.
“In 1996 Bill went on the All Black tour of South Africa with seven mates in mid-winter, playing 14 different golf courses, and leaving me with 3500 sheep, 150 bales of hay and 50 cows,” chips in Tilly. “I left the Dennison boy to help though,” defends Bill.
