Mesopotamia Station is a high-country

station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

in New Zealand's

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

. Known mainly for one of its first owners, the novelist Samuel Butler, it is probably the country's best known station. Despite popular belief, Butler was not the station's first owner.

Geography

Mesopotamia originally occupied the country between the

Rangitata River The Rangitata River is one of the braided rivers that helped form the Canterbury Plains in southern New Zealand. It flows southeast for from the Southern Alps (New Zealand), Southern Alps, entering the Pacific Ocean northeast of Timaru. The riv ...

and the top of the

Two Thumb Range The Two Thumb Range (sometimes called the Two Thumbs Range) is a range of mountains in the Canterbury Region of New Zealand's South Island. It is located to the east of Lake Tekapo and has several peaks which rise to around . ...

, from Forest Creek upwards, and for many years included the Cloudy Peak forks of the Rangitata, which later became part of Stronechrubie Station.

Ownership

While many attribute the formation of the station to Butler, most parts of the station had been allotted several years before to various individuals. Butler arrived in Lyttelton on 27 January 1860 on the '' Roman Emperor''. He left England to get away from his father, and to free himself from constraints imposed by religion and law. He explored the headwaters of several

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

rivers, helped by his background in cross-country running, a sport pioneered at his former school,

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

. After taking several trips into the

High Country finally settled on and successfully applied for Run No. 367 in this area. He spent the following winter on the run with his stock, constructing his hut several miles up Forest Creek. The location of where the hut was situated is marked by a plaque today. Butler expanded his holdings over the following years by acquiring neighboring runs and establishing the station. Butler ran the station for approximately four years before selling and returning to England with double his initial investment (£8,000). Mesopotamia Station was placed under

tenure review Tenure review is a process of reviewing the leasehold tenure of some high country land in the South Island of New Zealand. It currently involves 20% of the South Island or 10% of the total land area of New Zealand. Tenure review began with the pa ...

in 2003, with 20,863 hectares out of the present 26,115 hectares becoming public conservation land. The remaining land (5,252 hectares) was freeholded to the leaseholder. The current holders of the pastoral lease is the Prouting family who have held it since 1945.

References

High Country stations Geography of Canterbury, New Zealand {{Coord, -43.640687955923475, 170.89679251152677, display=t, format=dms