Taranaki station right in the centre of things

By KEVIN TAYLOR

Okau Rd is the road to nowhere in the middle of nowhere.

But it leads to the "population centre" of New Zealand.

Down the isolated road several kilometres off State Highway 3 in the backblocks of north Taranaki lies the demographic heart of the country, based on the 1996 census.

As best as can be estimated, it is at the top of a ridge rising 200m above sea level on Paul and Rebecca Jellick's rugged 1420ha Kotare Station.

From the demographic centre, lines can be drawn going north-south and east-west. Half the country's 3.8 million people live north of the east-west line and half south - and half live east of the north-south line and half live west of it.

Mr Jellick had no idea he was sitting on the centre of New Zealand until the Herald visited him.

It follows the release of a book by Australian demographer Bernard Salt, who says that population figures are bearing out the theory New Zealand is increasingly becoming a nation of city slickers.

He says the trends that have pushed Auckland ahead of Adelaide to become Australasia's fifth-biggest city will inevitably continue.

Statistics New Zealand says most immigrants settle in Auckland, and the drift north from the South Island is continuing.

And the rising population in the upper North Island is shown by the drift north of that demographic dot.

Mr Jellick has been "hiding out" on the station since buying it in 1998 after years of problems with bureaucracy when he imported two Mig-21 jet fighters into the country.

He leads us on a slow climb up the steep hill behind the family house.

And there it is.

The population centre of New Zealand - as close as we can work out - is an area of scrub and bush-covered hill country.

Covered in small manuka trees and ferns, this rugged land is devoid of anything except Mr Jellick's stock and roaming pigs and goats, which make for good hunting.

The Tongaporutu River snakes through the valley below. The only hints of humanity are Okau Rd beside the river and two houses - Mr Jellick's and a smaller one up the road.

The area is mainly beef and sheep country, and some dairy cow grazing, he says. To the east is Department of Conservation land.

But Kotare Station is marginal farming country and Mr Jellick wants to offer tourists hunting trips on the block.

Okau Rd leads to State Highway 43, a Heritage Trail route running from Stratford to Taumarunui.

It is known as the "Lost Highway" but Mr Jellick can see the tourism potential, and others are beginning to as well.

"Even though we are the centre of New Zealand, we are remote, and that's precisely what Americans and other overseas people want."

Richard Speirs, a statistician in Statistics New Zealand's demography division, says the new demographic centre from the 2001 census will probably be calculated in December.

The 1986 and 1991 censuses show the centre has been moving slowly north.

In 1986 the dot was 18.5km south - and has moved about 9km north every census.

So when the new demographic dot is worked out, it may not even leave Kotare Station.

Either way the population centre of New Zealand will still be in the middle of nowhere.