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Otago Daily Times
5 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
Son of Arrowtown's colourful life
Jim Childerstone, aka 'Five-mile Fred', who died recently, aged 90, was well known to many Whakatipu residents despite living out of town for the past 30 years. Philip Chandler delves into his full life and his interesting take on wilding pines. Forestry consultant, logger, writer, hiker, golfer, adventurer ... the list goes on. Third-generation Arrowtowner Jim Childerstone, who died recently, aged 90, might have lived with his wife Margot in North Otago for the past 30 years, but Arrowtown was still where his heart was. Raised there, his parents were Mary and Walter, and Mary's father was well-known local doctor, William Ferguson. When almost 7 he and Mary joined Walter in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where he developed tea plantations. However, it was World War 2, and as Japan was about to invade they escaped by boat to South Africa. At one school he learnt rugby "the South African way under a former Springbok", he said. On arriving home he returned to Arrowtown School. He wrote he and school mates risked their lives exploring old gold mining tunnels. In his book, Up the Rees Valley, he wrote about 60-plus years of local trips and tramps with friends including summiting, with a schoolmate, the Remarkables in 1952 during a challenging 16-hour day. Margot says at Lincoln College, near Christchurch, where he received an agricultural diploma and post-grad degree in soil and water, he paid for most of his books from goldpanning in Arrowtown. She adds he stayed an extra two years to play on the college basketball team. He started his journalism career at Auckland's Herald newspaper, but had the opportunity to earn more as a pneumatic drill operator before a stint as a Sydney Morning Herald court reporter. He later travelled to Europe, sleeping on beaches in Greece, then in Canada worked on the Calgary Herald and was a part-time ski patroller in Banff. He and Margot, who grew up in Argentina, met in a London pub and married close by, in Hampstead, in '68. Jim worked for the British government's Central Office of Information which relocated him to the Solomon Islands. "We had two and a-half years, which was fantastic," Margot says, "and Jim trained some young Solomon Islanders as reporters." They had a summer in Queenstown, Jim working as an Earnslaw stoker, then returned to England. They popped back for good in the mid-1970s and bought a 5.5-hectare Closeburn property, near Queenstown, which was about 70% covered in wilding pines. They lived in their pantechnicon, Margot recalls, while Jim built a log cabin from Corsican pines. Visitors commented on its lovely smell, she says — they later moved into a larger residence built of Douglas firs milled above One Mile Creek. Jim operated a portable mill, cutting timber, mostly wildings, for houses in nearby Sunshine Bay and Fernhill but also over at Walter Peak, at the Arrowtown golf course and even Stewart Island. He set up a timber yard in Industrial Place, then a larger one called Closeburn Timber Corner where today's Glenda Dr is. Meanwhile, he wrote his 'Five-mile Fred' column in Mountain Scene over three years — named after Queenstown's Five Mile Creek, not Frankton's later Five Mile. They were his and mates like 'Twelve-mile Trev's' musings on topics of the day from "up on the diggings". His columns made a book, Of gold dust, nuggets & bulldust, accompanied by Garrick Tremain cartoons. The Childerstones also developed the Closeburn Alpine Park campground, but were badly burnt in the '87 sharemarket crash. The couple, who eventually paid off most of their debts, moved first to Arrowtown then, helped by Lotto winnings, bought in Hampden, North Otago, in '94. Jim still frequented Queenstown, staying in hotels with Margot when she'd bring through Spanish and Italian tours during her days as a tour guide. He established a forestry consultancy, and took a stand against the wholesale destruction of wilding 'pests'. "There are practical ways of attacking the problem rather than the gung-ho attitude of fundamentalist conservation groups," he told Scene on the release of his book, The Wilding Conifer Invasion — Potential Resource or Pest Plant, in 2017. Pointing also to the ugliness of sprayed Douglas firs on hillsides, he argued wilding trees could be harvested for high-grade building timber and biofuels could be extracted from wood waste while also applauding locals Michael Sly and Mathurin Molgat for tapping wildings for essential oil products. Queenstown's Kim Wilkinson, who recalls hiking in the hills with Margot and Jim on Sundays before enjoying their hospitality, says "Jim was still hiking around the hills in his late 80s and even in his later years had the mental energy and enthusiasm of a young man in his 20s". Margot says "people are coming out of the woodwork saying 'he did this for me', nobody has a bad word to say about him". She reveals before he died there had been moves made for them to potentially retire to a pensioner flat in Arrowtown.
Otago Daily Times
24-04-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Personalising Arrowtown's war dead
Denise Heckler with Arrowtown's new WWI memorial panel on Soldiers Hill. PHOTO: PHILIP CHANDLER A passionate Arrowtowner, Denise Heckler got the idea for a memorial panel remembering Arrowtown's WW1 victims when she saw a panel beside the Glenorchy Hall several years ago. "This panel seemed to personalise these men more than mentioning a name on a monument. "I very much wanted to do it because I thought Arrowtown has given my family so much that I have no problem doing something like that to help." With the support of the Queenstown & District Historical Society she belongs to, and particularly Marion Borrell, Heckler spent two years learning about these 18 soldiers, 14 of whom died in battles — including four within a few days at Passchendaele in 1917 — and four who succumbed to disease. Contrary to what she'd expected, there wasn't a hurry to enlist, possibly because many menfolk were needed on local farms. That changed after the Military Service Act 1916 introduced a conscription ballot for men between 20 and 46. Heckler's research took her to the Auckland War Memorial Museum where she even found the soldiers' medical records. "I noticed they were quite short, 5 foot 8 [173cm], 5 foot 10 [178cm]; they commented on John Boyd Hunter as he was 6 foot 2 [188cm]. "And their teeth were terrible." She also had great help from the archivist at Arrowtown's Lakes District Museum, Jo Boyd, and found photos of nine of the soldiers. She also included for the panel a photo of mainly Arrowtown soldiers taking a break from training at the Featherston Military Camp. "Many went to those camps and got influenza and measles and it wasn't an easy road before they even left." Heckler notes Arrowtown's population in 1916 was only 308 so the impact of losing so many people, as for many other small towns, would have been widespread. "I discovered the churches, regardless of the denomination of the soldier who had been killed, acknowledged that soldier at their [next] service." She also got an insight into the degradation of war — "it surprises me we keep doing this". After the panel was unveiled she gave a talk to the historical society. "I quoted John Smith, who had been fighting in the Somme, describing how they didn't have tea for four days, had 10 days without a shave and when they slept it was in a foot of mud. "He said it was the next best thing to Hades." Heckler says Arrowtown's Returned and Services' Association sponsored the project and Print Central produced the panel at a very reasonable price. She admits she'll probably also have to research Arrowtown's eight WW2 casualties for another panel. Anzac Day commemorations 6.30am: Queenstown Dawn Service, Memorial Gates, Marine Parade (service sheet accessed by QR code), followed by march to Queenstown Memorial Centre for wreath-laying 10am: Parade from Arrowtown Athenaeum Hall to Soldiers Hill 10.30am: Arrowtown service at The Cenotaph, Soldiers Hill (Arrowtown Athenaeum Hall if wet) Noon: Bagpiper Graeme Grass plays The Lament for Edith Cavell on the Edith Cavell Bridge Roll of honour
