1962
Dorothy andLloyd Morris leave Ontario, Canada, after plans are made to build a NuclearPower reactor close by. They arrive in New Zealand, mid 1960s, and travel through the country on a motorbike with a sidecar looking for a place to establish a holistic environmentally sustainable base on which to develop their ideals. While in the Dunedin area they have a serious accident on their bike which results in several months of hospitalisation.
1967
After leaving hospital they decide to stay in this area and purchase their first property atUpper Junction and live there in a caravan. Shortly after this they purchase another property that includes the “up top” cottage from a University of Otago lecturer, Adolf Diegel, after lengthy negotiations in which Diegel is trying to ensure they have the right mind set, are going to foster regenerating bush and look after his Galway cattle until they die .
Dorothy becomes well known as the Secretary of the local branch of the Soil and Health Association and it is through this branch that she meets Malcolm Murchie and his wife Erihapeti Rehu – Murchie. In the early 1970s Dorothy and Lloyd allow a small community with similar ideals to be established with no charge in an old farm/sawmill complex within the regenerating bush. It is an off-shoot of James K Baxter’s Jerusalem community on the Whanganui river and is called Whare Manuka by Erihapeti Rehu – Murchie, a friend of Baxter and mother of a member of the community. The Whare Manuka community disperses after a number of years and Dorothy and Lloyd shelter a succession of people from Dunedin and elsewhere in Whare Manuka (essentially refugees from city living).
1980 – 2000
Over this period the bulk of the property –the mixture of regenerating and virgin native bush – is placed under the protection of the Queen Elizabeth Trust. Eventually Sue Easterbrook takes over Whare Manuka and raises her family there until the early 1990s. She is then succeeded by another group of young people who adhere to the ideals of the Trust.In 1995 they form the “Friends of Volco Trust” or FOVT. During this period Dorothy and Lloyd supported many environmental issues including the establishment of the DunedinEnvironment Centre. Through living in a simple, inexpensive, sustainable lifestyle, they built up the asset base of the Trust. Lloyd dies in 1996. And in 1999Initial Volco Trust (Dorothy at this point is the sole Trustee), buys part of the neighbouring Larkin farm which includes the Volco farm house, the “BigHouse”, and this becomes the centre of a new community formed around FOVT.
2000 – 2010
FOVT pays a minimal rent for the farmhouse and the bulk of the properties owned by Initial Volco Trust but are charged with maintaining the property in a healthy, cooperative and sustainable way. Gardens are established and many people pass through the community learning about the virtues and difficulties of living in a sustainable way with the environment and within a community but eventually the community dissolves andFOVT disbands, IVT taking over their assets and the management of the Volco properties. By this time the community had formed an important part of the lives of many, mostly younger people, and including some older. But it was not sustainable through the itinerant lifestyles of young people, the colder and more moist climate associated with the high altitude making farming and gardening more difficult, and the failure of the Trust to give them a greater vested interest in the future of the properties.
2010 – 2018
Initial Volco Trust take over the operational responsibilities formerly delegated to FOVT and set out to map anew direction. The first task was to mill the pinus radiata plantation. From this an income was obtained to make the first steps in a new direction. Because times have changed it is now more possible than before to establish supportive relationships with groups who share the ideals of the Trust. At the same time we are developing a model of sustainable development based on small movable houses and leasing arrangements that foster a healthy relationship with the environment. As a part of this restructuring we have sold one property (Upper Junction) and bought another (Manunui on the opposite side of Mt Cargill Rd to Whare Manuka) out of the profit while also financing repair of the cottage and Whare Manuka.