Clutha-Southland MP Hamish Walker with the newborn lamb and its mother in a paddock near Garston. Photo / Supplied
Clutha-Southland MP Hamish Walker with the newborn lamb and its mother in a paddock near Garston. Photo / Supplied
Clutha-Southland MP Hamish Walker's duties took a turn for the unusual when he drove past a bleeding ewe in a paddock, pulled over, and helped deliver a lamb.
Walker was driving along State Highway 6 on Monday near Garston when he saw a ewe in a paddock on its side.
"Upon pulling up to it on the side of the road, I noticed it had blood coming from its behind. It looked like it was about to lamb."
Walker's electorate covers a lot of rural territory and he said he usually carries trackpants and gumboots in his car.
"I quickly changed out of my suit into more practical clothing and jumped the fence, but it managed to get up and walk away. I could tell it needed help.
"What's great about small communities is it only takes one phone call to find the local information you need. The lady I phoned knew who the paddock belonged to. She phoned the farmer, who arrived 45 minutes later."
National MP Hamish Walker lending a hand in helping a ewe give birth. Photo / Supplied
A gloveless Walker then assisted the farmer in birthing the lamb, which required him to reach in and pull out the lamb by hand, a process Walker described as "normal".
"The reason the lamb didn't come out very easily was because it was a big one. It needed a bit of assistance."
"It most likely would have died if we didn't get to it before nightfall.
"I'm a little embarrassed as farmers are doing this thousands of times a day at the moment and any other person would have done the same thing if they had come across an animal needing a hand.
"The farmer did most of the work, he was great."
He said the farmer was grateful and invited him for a beer, but he was already late for his next meeting and had to decline.
Walker said a tourist operator phoned him the following morning to tell him that the whole episode was witnessed by a busload of tourists, who were driven past as he had his arm up the sheep's backside.
This was not the first time Walker was in the area when help was needed.
Earlier this year he was walking with his wife Penny Tipu when they came across a man who was standing on a six-inch wide ledge at the top of the Lake Hawea dam.
Tipu called police while Walker managed to talk the man down from the ledge.
"He's done a really good civic job of taking the time to engage, and talk him into coming with him and away from a dangerous situation, and then buying him some smokes and food to calm him down," Detective Senior Sergeant Malcolm Inglis said of Walker's intervention.
