20 January 2025

Land Girl

Wahine Ahuwhenua. Woman of the Land.

writer: ANNA BRANKIN (KĀI TAHU, KĀTI MĀMOE)

photographer: NANCY ZHOU

From studying at Lincoln as a Land Girl during World War II to working on farms throughout Waitaha Canterbury, Jill MacKenzie looks back on a lifetime of connection to the land. Over a cup of tea from her home in Kaikōura, she shares with Shepherdess her memories of a long life well-lived.

“We had a cottage in Kaikōura and used to come up for holidays,” says Jill. “When it was time to move, my husband came up and built this house with the help of an old neighbour over the road. Wilson wasn’t a builder but he f igured it out. He had an architect friend who drew up the plan, and we carted all those stones up from Halswell Quarry.”

High up on the Kaikōura Peninsula, with panoramic views of snowcapped mountains, lush farmland and sparkling ocean, lives a remarkable woman whose life stretches across more than a century. Jill has packed an awful lot of living into her 101 years. These days, you’ll still find her zipping around town in her trusty car, Bluebell, or whipping up a batch of cheese scones in the kitchen – and she’s always happy to sit down with a cup of tea and share some of the stories she’s collected over her lifetime

“I have very happy memories of my childhood,” Jill says fondly. “I was born in Christchurch, but the first years of my life were spent at Balmoral Station in the Mackenzie.” Jill’s father drew Balmoral Station when the high country sheep runs were cut up and balloted after World War I, and the family enjoyed several years there before deciding to sell up. They moved to Te Pātaka o Rakaihautū Banks Peninsula for a short time, before eventually buying a farm in the small settlement of Cave, just inland of Timaru. “I remember going to school at Diamond Harbour for just a little while, before we moved to Cave,” Jill says. “After that I did go to the little school in Cave until it closed down and we all had to catch the bus to Pleasant Point. Then for high school, I boarded at Rangi Ruru in Christchurch for a couple of years and then at Craighead in Timaru.”

“I grew up in a simpler time,” says Jill. “Things seem to have gotten a little faster. Everything’s so hectic somehow. I think I was lucky to grow up when I did, although I am glad for Sky Sport and my microwave.”

Jill’s rural upbringing instilled in her a profound sense of connection to the land, and she was never happier than when she was outdoors working with animals. These days, she says she probably would have pursued a career in farming straight from school, but there were fewer options open to young women back then. So, against the backdrop of World War II – which began around the time she finished high school – Jill found herself back in Ōtautahi Christchurch for a short-lived stint at nursing school. “I got through the first part of my course but then I got scarlet fever very badly, and spent about three months in Burwood Hospital,” says Jill. “It was ghastly. They sent me back to nursing school when I was recovered and I promptly got chicken pox. So the nursing career didn’t last.”

“I’m still on my feet, although I use a walking stick or a walker when I’m at home. I’ve got about three – there’s one inside, one in the garden and one at the front door.”

Although the war years weren’t without their difficulties – Jill remembers petrol shortages, and her mother fretting when she wasn’t able to travel to Christchurch when Jill was in hospital – they also brought opportunities for young women. In 1941, with so many men otherwise occupied with the war effort, the Canterbury Agricultural College at Lincoln offered a six week course in farm instruction for women. The twenty-two women who participated – Jill among them – became known as the Land Girls. They learned everything from managing and feeding animals, milking cows, driving tractors and other farm machinery and harvesting crops.

At just eighteen, Jill was the youngest of the Land Girls. “I really loved my time at Lincoln. I enjoyed the sheep work most of all, and I wasn’t so keen on the dairy,” Jill says. “When the course finished, the chap who’d taken it actually wanted me to stay on. He could see it would be useful, because all the boys were still away at the war.” The request for Jill to stay on and look after the sheep on the farm was duly made to Professor Eric R. Hudson, the director of the college, who reportedly replied that it would be far too much responsibility to have a woman. “I thought, ‘how feeble,’” Jill says.

Jill with her certificate from Lincoln University, which was awarded in 2021 in recognition of her 1941 course completion. She is believed to be their oldest living former student.

Continue reading the full story in our Raumati Summer 2024/25 Edition.

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