Wayleggo

Short Film (Full Length) – 1965

This 1965 National Film Unit classic follows the working life of a young musterer, on a 145,000 acre South Island merino sheep station. He hands over his swag and gets to work (after he’s been mocked for bringing an electric blanket). He begins in the summer: training dogs and breaking in a horse. In the autumn it’s the muster: wrangling 10,000 sheep from the tops, across rivers and down to the yards before winter snow. Peter Newton’s 1947 musterer memoir, Wayleggo, was a local bestseller, and the film bolsters the book’s Kiwi mountain man mythology.

One man has to go right over the top. He had a two hour climb this morning, but once he’s up there his work is almost over. He can have a blow and bark his dogs, and all the sheep will take off.
– From the narration