Teviot Station Woolshed Ruins

How a this elegant arch was created from a pile of rocks scraped from the barren country of Teviot is almost as difficult to believe as the fact it was done for the sake of sheep, and the story that this remote spot was where New Zealand's first telephone call was received. Yet all of this is true and the ruins are here to tell the story.

As with many incredible tales and unusual buildings there was an ambitious character involved, in this case it was Captain John Cargill, son of William Cargill, early Otago Settler and original owner of Teviot Station. The farm was a sheep run, and Cargill decided to put a woolshed up in the 1870s. The story continues that he managed to personally secure spans of steel and roofing from Glasgow exhibition and have them shipped across, then used the local materials to patch his project together. The sides of the barn were timber, and eventually fire did away with them. The footprint and end arches of the woolshed remain and are protected by Heritage New Zealand.

Cargill, on the same trip to Europe, in 1876, was reported to have met Alexander Graham Bell, the father of the telephone. A set of telephones came back to Otago with him and he installed one in Dunedin, and the other at his homestead at Teviot Station, the lines going up and the call taking place in 1877.

The Teviot River follows a long and winding route from Lake Onslow to meet the Clutha at Roxburgh, and forms the boundary of the station. A similarly impressive old stone and steel structure was used to cross it at Roxburgh but it has fallen away.

To find the woolshed; from Clutha Gold Trail or the road from Roxburgh, cross the Clutha River and turn right along Teviot Rd; turn left up Loop Rd to Smith Rd. The ruins are in the paddock and hard to miss. Teviot Station is still a working station and the buildings are private property.

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