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Story: Sheep farming

Driving sheep around the coast

Video file

In 1844, Charles Clifford and Frederick Weld drove a mob of sheep around the coast from Wellington to the Wairarapa – the beginning of large-scale sheep farming in New Zealand. This 1981 video shows a re-enactment of that journey. Clifford and Weld’s sheep were Merinos weakened by their sea journey to Wellington and were much smaller than the Romneys seen here.

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TVNZ Television New Zealand

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How to cite this page

Hugh Stringleman and Robert Peden, Sheep farming – The establishment phase, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/video/16623/driving-sheep-around-the-coast (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Hugh Stringleman and Robert Peden, published 1 March 2009, updated 1 March 2015.