HIGH-COUNTRY FILM COMING

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30958, 14 January 1966, Page 10

HIGH-COUNTRY FILM COMING

“Wayleggo,” a short film shot on Mount White station, in the Waimakariri headwaters, depicting the story of a young musterer’s introduction to high-country life, will be shown in Christchurch from January 21.

Shot in wide-screen colour by the National Film Unit, the film conveys all the majesty and grandeur of the Canterbury high country, with its wide sweeps of tus-sock-covered flats and ranges and the snow-clad Southern Alps. The film’s title comes from the call musterers give to their dogs to bring them to heel. The call is short for “Come away and let them go-” “Wayleggo is a successor to “The Snowline Is Their Boundary,” made in 1954, one of the National Film Unit’s first colour films for theatres. It was immensely popular in New Zealand and overseas,

so popular that the original negative has been worn out by the number of prints taken off.

“Wayleggo” opens with arresting shots of the Mount White country, and of the young musterer arriving with his team of untrained dogs. The training of the dogs and his work in the yards at sheep-dipping, cattle-marking, and horse-breaking are covered in the early sequence.

In the autumn comes the big muster. The sheep, out since the summer’s shearing, are grazing in isolated mobs on the mountain tops, and must be hunted down before snow falls. Six men on horseback set out with pack-horses, 50 dogs, and supplies for a fortnight. From the Blusterers’ huts dotted over the station they climb to the tops, gather the sheep on the slopes, and chase them out of the gullies below. By the time the sheep are all assembled ready to cross the Esk river, the weather is becoming rough and the river rising. It is not easy to shift 12,000 sheep safely to the far side, but with the skill of the men and dogs it is soon done,

and the sheep move on. looking like a gigantic raft of wool. The river crossing is a highlight of the film, but there are many others—the dogs seeking out stragglers and little mobs up on the tops or in the creeks, the arduous descents over stony ground, where the horses have to he led, and the vast panoramas of mobs of sheep forming endless winding patterns over the landscape. In searching for a location for “Wayleggo,” the film unit’s crew appealed for assistance to Mr R. Bell, manager of Mount White station, who had appeared as a musterer in “Snowline.” With full knowledge of what he was letting himself in for, Mr Bell offered the facilities of Mount White. Reaching right back to the Southern Alps to a boundary on Arthur’s Pass National Park, this 145,000acre station in an ideal location. With only mountain ranges and rivers for boundaries, it has spectacular mountain and lake scenery, the sheep grazing on extremely rugged country. The location found, the

next requirement was a young musterer to play the part of the “new boy.” Here again Mount White found the man —Murray Wood, who was returning to Mount White for his second mustering season. As will be seen from the film, he filled the role adequately, and later was an able commentator.

“Wayleggo” was directed and scripted by Robert Kingsbury, with Brian Latham as cameraman and Graham Pomfret-Brown as sound recordist. Geoffrey Scott and Oxley Hughan were the producers. Special music was composed by Oswald Cheesman.

Filming the big muster was a difficult assignment. The camera men not only had to get to most places the musterers went, but had to carry 1001 b of camera, tripod, and film stock over ridge and gully. Once the/ had filmed the sheep being driven past, they had to hurry to repeat the action in a different setting, and this over extremely steep and nigged country. “Wayleggo” will appear as a supporting feature at the Majestic Theatre.