The Dixon Property at Paynes Ford

In September 1863 Dixon bought a total of 120 acres (49 hectares) from Thomas Windle with the help of a £250 mortgage loan from Alfred Fell of Nelson. The purchase comprised part 2 (54 acres or 22 ha) and 3 (36 acres or 15 ha) of Section 30, on the east bank of the Takaka River, and part of Section 122 (30 acres or 12 ha) on the west bank. Two years later he purchased a further 141 acres (57 ha), part of neighbouring Section 110 on the east bank, as a Crown Grant. All were in square 11 of the Waitapu Survey District under the early survey system. For several years a friend, Arthur John Bromiley, was associated with Dixon at Takaka but it is not clear in what capacity.

Apart from the limestone outcrops the land was fertile river flat, swampy in places and subject to flooding near the rivers. It was in dense standing bush, of trees such as matai, rimu and kahikatea, most of them, as described by J Halket Millar, 'about 100 feet (30m) high, with trunks in proportion'. ²