We're buying Lilydale Station for NZ

2167 Clayton Road, Fairlie, Mackenzie, Canterbury, 4046ha

Land value Improvement value Capital value

$2,910,000 + $730,000 = $3,640,000

Property use: Developmen­t site

Land area: 40460000m2

Includes: 450ha for grazing

Price: Price by negotiatio­n

Lilydale is located at the northwest part of the Fairlie Basin in South Canterbury. It covers eastern slopes of the Sherwood Range in the upper reaches of North Opuha River. It is a large property, ranging in altitude from 700m at the valley floor to 2330m at Fox Peak. The property is owned and managed by RHL for conservation and recreation. It previously supported extensive grazing by domestic stock (sheep and cattle) and presently supports low numbers of game animals grazed extensively across the whole property. Existing property management is concentrated on plant pest control, notably broom, gorse and grey willow.

The plant communities on the property are closely aligned with altitude and landform, and five primary altitudinal landform-plant community associations can be identified. There are generally very abrupt transitions between the communities. These are: a. Alpine herbfields/rockfields; b. Snow tussock grasslands (slopes below the alpine zone); c. Mountain cotton daisy/fescue tussock/pasture lands (mid altitude hillslopes and fans); d. Shrub/grassland associations (active streambeds/fans); e. Improved exotic pastureland (flat terraces of the North Opuha River).

It should be noted that, if protected from fire, browsing animals and woody weeds, native shrub and tree species will regenerate naturally at lower altitude parts of the property. However, this process will be slow and restricted to species for which there are local seed sources or which have bird-dispersed fruit. Regeneration is advanced at some parts of the property, notably on the sides of incised streams. Regeneration at these sites could be enhanced by fencing these areas from browsing animals.

Ross’s Creek Site of Natural Significance (SONS 84) lies near to North Opuha Red Tussock Site of Natural Significance (SONS 70) and North Opuha/Clayton Station Wetland (SONS 71). Ross’s Creek SONS (84) and other SONS on the Lilydale property are new SONS, first identified by this survey.

This Site of Natural Significance (SONS) lies alongside the lower reaches of a stream at the central part of the property, known locally as Roaring Meg Creek. This stream drains the eastern flank of the Sherwood Range, just north of Fox Peak Ski Field. SONS 85 occupies the gentlysloping alluvial terraces of Ross’s Creek and adjacent areas of steep terrace scarp and hill slope. The underlying geology is mostly grey/brown angular gravel, sand and silt of sloping alluvial fans, with recent alluvium along the stream (Cox and Barrell, 2007).

This Site of Natural Significance (SONS) lies on a broad gently-sloping fan, on the lower valleyside north of Ross’s Creek and the Fox Peak Ski Field road. It includes the prominent scarp of Fox Peak Fault, which is a listed Geopreservation Site (G22) in Appendix 1, Mackenzie District Plan. The underlying geology is grey/brown deposits of old alluvial fans (Cox and Barrell, 2007).

This Site of Natural Significance (SONS) lies on a gently-sloping river terrace, between the scarp of a higher terrace and the upper North Opuha River. A vehicle track traverses one side of the site. The underlying geology is grey/brown angular gravel, sand and silt of recent deposits (Cox and Barrell, 2007).