The Department of Conservation has picked Ngāi Tahu Farming as its preferred operator for Molesworth Station, the vast high country property in inland Marlborough that is New Zealand’s largest farm.
DOC announced the decision on Friday afternoon, saying Ngāi Tahu Farming, a wholly owned subsidiary of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu Group, would now be invited to apply for a concession to run the commercial farming operation. Four other bids were unsuccessful, including a charitable trust proposal led by the station’s former manager, Jim Ward.
Molesworth covers 180,787 hectares of Crown-owned land straddling inland Marlborough and North Canterbury, administered by DOC as the Rangitahi/Molesworth Recreation Reserve. It is slightly larger than Stewart Island and bigger than 10 of the country’s national parks. For more than two decades it has been run as a cattle station by the state-owned farmer Pāmu, formerly Landcorp, under a lease from DOC.
That arrangement is ending. Pāmu’s lease was due to expire on 30 June this year, but the two parties agreed in June to push the handover out to April 2027 so the change of operator lands at autumn weaning rather than in spring, when high rivers and stock scattered across the property would make a valuation and handover far harder. Pāmu confirmed last month it would give up the lease at that point.
DOC deputy director-general regional operations Henry Weston said the choice came down to farming experience at scale and financial strength.
“This decision ultimately came down to Ngāi Tahu Farming, a wholly owned subsidiary of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu Group, having the strongest experience of farming at scale in the high country of those who applied,” Weston said. “They have strong financial and business foundations offering long-term security for the Crown, making them the best applicant for the opportunity to negotiate the concession.”
Ngāi Tahu Farming already runs three high country stations covering about 36,000 hectares, part of roughly 100,000 hectares of farming and forestry land it manages across the South Island. Taking on Molesworth would nearly triple its high country footprint in a single move.
The appointment is not the end of the process. Being named preferred operator only earns the right to negotiate. Ngāi Tahu Farming must now lodge a formal concession application, the permit required to run a commercial operation on conservation land, and that application will be publicly notified so anyone can make a submission before a final decision is made.
Weston said farming would remain the core commercial activity at Molesworth, but the property was also a nationally important drylands ecosystem with significant biodiversity, heritage, recreational and cultural values.
“Final details of the farming operations will be determined through the concession process and will need to deliver on our high expectations regarding public access and weed and pest control,” he said. “DOC ran a thorough process, weighed up a range of expert advice and materials, and made a decision in the best interest of Molesworth, one of New Zealand’s truly special places.”
Weston thanked all five applicants, saying the department was fortunate to have several strong applications and a lot of work had clearly gone into them.
Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu chief executive Ben Bateman said the decision reflected the iwi’s capability in farming, conservation and commercial management.
“We are committed to making sure the terms of any concession we negotiate are good for all New Zealanders. Public access, biodiversity and ecological stewardship are central to how we would manage Rangitahi Molesworth,” Bateman told RNZ.
Te Rūnanga o Kaikōura chairperson Hariata Kahu said the decision was an important milestone for her hapū, Ngāti Kurī. “For many generations we have longed to play a more active role in protecting Rangitahi Molesworth,” she said. “For Ngāti Kurī, this is about ensuring future generations can experience Rangitahi, much like our ancestors did, with its landscapes and stories protected.”
For Jim Ward, the outcome ends a year of work on a very different model. Ward managed Molesworth for 24 years and put forward a plan to turn it into a self-funding operation run by a charitable trust, a station for the nation that would hold the property’s natural and historic assets in trust while still paying its own way.
He told RNZ he was informed of the decision in a short phone call about an hour and a half before the public announcement. “I’m absolutely gutted. The last 12 months have been a huge body of work getting it in front of people. We are all a bit deflated at the minute to be honest,” Ward said. He said DOC had not told him why his bid failed.
Federated Farmers president Colin Hurst welcomed the clarity the decision provided and backed the process behind it. Hurst said the Department of Conservation “has run a really robust, competitive and fair process to get to this point”. “We congratulate Ngāi Tahu Farming on putting forward a strong business case and being selected as the preferred operator to negotiate for the lease.”
Hurst said the commercial logic stacked up. “Ngāi Tahu Farming has a strong balance sheet that would allow them to keep farming through tough years with drought or poor commodity prices. It’s also well placed to run an integrated system with existing finishing farms around North Canterbury.” He added that there needed to be clear expectations set that public access to Molesworth is protected and that there is a commitment to active weed and pest management.
Those two conditions, public access and pest control, are the ones most likely to dominate submissions when the concession application is notified. The Acheron Road runs through the middle of the reserve and is open to the public each summer, from 1 October until Easter, alongside DOC campsites at the Acheron Accommodation House and the 1885 Molesworth cob cottage, which together make it one of the few working stations most New Zealanders can drive across. Weed and pest control across 180,000 hectares of dry tussock country is a cost any operator inherits. The financial terms of the concession, including what Ngāi Tahu Farming will pay the Crown, are still to be negotiated and have not been disclosed.
What do you think about the future of Molesworth Station under a new operator? Should the concession lock in stronger guarantees on public access and pest control? Leave a comment below and let us know.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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