Town and Around: Turkeys In Gumboots

Kiwi telly showed it could do sly as well as it could show the shearing of a sheep when, in a 1968 Wellington edition of regional news show Town and Around, reporter Erin Sinclair investigated an innovative farmer whose turkeys were shod in gumboots. The legendary hoax apparently fooled two executives from Skellerup who flew to Whanganui to secure a contract to manufacture the boots' lining. The wool-pulling is often wrongly remembered as a Country Calendar spoof — but that show’s first hoodwinker (a fence-plucking musical farmer) was nearly a decade away.

Have you had any problems getting the turkeys accustomed to wearing gumboots?

– Reporter Erin Sinclair

Key Cast & Crew

Brian Lehrke

Concept, Camera

Erin Sinclair

Reporter