The Rise and Fall of New Zealand's Most Powerful Station: St James

Описание: The Rise and Fall of New Zealand's Most Powerful Station: St James

78,196 hectares: the largest Crown pastoral lease in the country. St James wasn't just a station — it was horse country, where Jim Stevenson taught his grandson to break in horses. Eighty-one years in one family.

But on 8 October 2008, Helen Clark announced the Crown was buying it whole, for $40 million. The station was destocked. In 2021 the McArthur Bridge over the Waiau Uwha was wrecked and removed.

Today, a new 68-metre bridge spans that gorge, opened on 13 August 2025. In January 2025, all 30 horses mustered from the Ada Valley sold for $180,000. This is the story of a family that sold to keep the country open — and what one herd says about how stations really end.

This is not just the story of St James.
It's the story of who gets to own the mountains.

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