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Hillwood and Thackwood

The original owner of the land in the little valley leading towards Gentle Annie was Francis Jollie who was allocated Section 30 and later Section 31. This he called Hillwood. Two men soon had several acres down in crops and it is recorded that they formed a read from the farm to a boat landing on the beach. Jollie himself moved out to live on his property in 1844, but went to live in Canterbury in 1853.

William Bell took over the property in 1868 and lived there for a few years before moving to sheepruns in Marlborough, where the Bells became well known sheepmen at such places as Erina, Hillersden, Northbank, and other places. Two of Bell's sons married two of Edmund Wastney's daughters.

It would appear that Arthur Shuckburg Collyns^* was the next owner. Collyns, a son-in-law of James Mackay, born in Devonshire, England, came to New Zealand in the ship "Pekin" in 1849. He tried exploring various routes through the ranges and it was he who blazed the track which eventually became the main road from Nelson through the Rai Valley to Marlborough. He was a member of various local bodies and became a Member of Parliament. An early Cob house had been replaced by a substantial wooden house to which Collyns added a large extension. This home is still standing but is now showing its age.

The 'Buller Lion', Eugene O'Connor, was the next owner, and he sold the property to Herbert O'Bierne whose family still reside there.

Little is known about Thackwood. It is believed to have been a prefabricated structure brought from England such as were then imported either for the New Zealand Company settlers or later for the New Zealand Government.

At one time it was owned by C. J. C. Dencker, son of a German settler, who became a sawmiller and went farming in the Whangamoa Valley.