Country Calendar: New Zealand's longest form of pop culture
While popular shows Newshub, Fair Go, and Sunday were all cut last year, Country Calendar remains as the longest running TV show in New Zealand history. Almost 60 years on Kiwi's screens. And while my journalist side would argue that it isn't providing the same hard-hitting news, the archiving of New Zealand history is something to be appreciated.
A segment in 1986 told the story of my Koro and the family farm in Taumarunui. Back then, it was used for cashmere farming, and was progressive at the time for having women leading the work. Through the pixelated archive episode, Koro Robert Hall says, “We've got 5,500 goats on these two blocks, and there's two girls running them without any major hassles. Now, that would be a handful of sheep for men, but this is at a stud level and they're doing pretty well with it without any real problems.”
Koro Robert Hall on the farm in 1986. Photo / Country Calendar
As of three years ago, the farm is now owned by farmer Struan Duncan. And in a full circle moment, it is being featured once again on Country Calendar this April.
Before farming sheep and beef in the King's Country, Struan tells me he first watched Country Calendar as a youngster. “I would of been a kid, back in the 70s, probably on a black and white TV if I recall,” he says with a chuckle.
“A lot of TV was more sort of rural back then, New Zealand was a more rural country. We're really a metropolitan society now.” He feels Country Calendar is what we've got remaining of this 'rural New Zealand’ era. “It's an archive, and if you go back through the decades, it's probably not just for farming but society in general.”
He says the show has changed along with Aotearoa. Struan explains that back in the 70s and 80s, even townies had a connection to the country that meant you didn't have to spell everything out. “Whereas these days, Country Calendar seem to be looking for a quirk or something a little bit alternative that goes along with not just being a standard farm.”
With female farmers becoming more included in the industry, the show has documented this progression. Struan also noticed how the women on the Taumarunui farm were something to make note of in the 80s. “Thinking back on the whole, society wasn't like that, it was a really male dominated industry.”
With other shows being cut, Struan could see that the Country Calendar crew had struggles of their own. “They only had one camera, which I guess is part of cutbacks.” He says the cameraman would often have him do things three or four times, like running a mob down a lane, so they could get multiple angles. Just three people helped with the shoot — the director, soundman, and camera man — for five days.
Since being asked on the show, Struan hears from everyone that it's their weekly Sunday watch. "People are still watching it big time, I think it's one of the only shows that is a snapshot of our society.”
But as New Zealand becomes more and more of a 'metropolitan’ country, as Struan says, it's beautiful that we have something to bring us back to our roots. And while this Wellington city girl probably doesn't know a lot about life in the rural King Country, Struan and I can agree on Country Calendar — “It's iconic.”
