McNicol Homestead

Originally from Arran in Scotland, Duncan and Marion McNicol, together with three daughters, arrived in New Zealand in 1853, accompanied by George Hoye, from Fifeshire, with whom they had spent some years on the Ballarat goldfields in Australia.

These pioneering families travelled from Auckland to Wairoa by Maori canoes, hosted overnight possibly at Umupuia marae on what is now the Maraetai Coast Road.

Their earliest days in Clevedon were spent, with five children (two more were born in the Wairoa) living in a raupō whare, constructed by local iwi. The first entirely Pākehā family group received into the Wairoa, it is chronicled that upon arrival Marion McNicol didn’t see another white woman for nine months.

The McNicol and Hoye holding was strategically midway between two riverside kainga of Te Urungahauhau and Ōtau, whose cultivated gardens were destined for the Auckland markets and the booming Australian goldfields. These early settlers were welcomed by Ngāi Tai who – as well as transport and house building – taught the settlers about the foods of the bush.

Other settlers soon joined them, then more fellow Scots who came out in 1865 on the ship Viola, from which 150 settled in the Clevedon Valley and surrounding areas.

“In 1977 a group of Clevedon residents formed the Clevedon (later Clevedon and Districts) Historical Society to preserve the records of the district. Meanwhile Peg McCutcheon (nee McNicol) was successful in having her century-old home designated as a heritage building. When Bernie Ross, the new owner of the McNicol farm, decided to give the homestead to the people of Clevedon, the Historical Society negotiated with Manukau City Council, who assumed the responsibility of ownership with the society as lessees and custodians for the people of Clevedon. In 1980 the McNicol Homestead Museum came into being. Now under Auckland Council it lives on, still managed by the Clevedon & Districts Historical Society, as a repository of the district’s history and as a community asset.”

(VB, p. 438).

Open Saturdays and Sundays, 1-4pm or by appointment.

email: preservingthepast@xtra.co.nz

phone: 09 292 8421

Upstairs you can observe a kitchen of those far-off days, complete with coal range and utensils one would have used long ago.

Elsewhere on the upper floor, you can see a “Settler’s Bedroom”, a “Gallery” room, and finally a “Services” room, the latter containing a great deal of relevant information concerning military matters, the local scout movement and the district’s churches.

From the upstairs balcony enjoy a magnificent view of rural tranquillity stretching over the Wairoa Valley.