A leading South Otago farming family, prominent in Milton since colonial times, is marking a significant transition as land built up over five generations passes out of Finch ownership.
For more than 160 years, the Finch family has been closely associated with the Tokomairiro district. After the deaths of four of the five siblings who farmed together for decades, Lindsay Finch, the last surviving brother, is gradually selling the remaining land, closing a remarkable chapter in local farming history.
In the second half of the twentieth century, Lindsay’s parents, John Raymond Finch, known as JR, and Isabel (nee France), were among Milton’s most prominent farmers. JR also served as a local county councillor in the 1970s.
JR was a great grandson of pioneers John and Elizabeth Finch, who arrived in Otago from England in 1848. By the time JR was born in 1914, the family had been farming in the district for more than half a century.
Through the 1940s, JR and Isabel established their own family, raising five children: Hazel, John, Fulton, Russell, and Lindsay. Starting with around 40 hectares surrounding their 1860s homestead, Hawthorne Lodge, the family steadily expanded their holdings to more than 1,000 hectares across 12 separate purchases.
As JR and Isabel aged, the farm passed to their children. Living together at Hawthorne Lodge, the five siblings farmed collectively. None married, and each took on distinct roles within the operation.
John and Fulton shared a strong interest in farm machinery. Russell specialised in rearing calves. Lindsay developed a passion for pigs, which grew into a commercial piggery from 1964. Hazel trained as a nurse, later returning to care for her parents and remaining on the farm with her brothers.
“We never had a disagreement,” says Lindsay. “We always worked things out together, and if land came up for sale, we looked at it.”
By late last year, Russell had become the fourth of the five siblings to die, leaving Lindsay as the last surviving member of the family farming partnership.
Since the early 2010s, Roger Nicolson of PGG Wrightson Real Estate, Dunedin, who has worked with the family since the 1990s, has assisted with a staged downscaling of the estate.
“Initially, in the early 2010s, we sold two 40-hectare blocks and a 570-hectare property at Table Hill on the inland side of the highway, which is now in trees. Last year we rationalised further, taking a 147-hectare property then a 168-hectare property to the market,” he says.
Lindsay is now left with 85 hectares, which includes the piggery, plus sheds, and the house the family built in 2006 to replace the historic Hawthorne Lodge.
In the meantime, Fulton’s vintage machinery collection was bequeathed to the Milton community, the South Otago Heritage Society taking on an array of tractors, trucks, farm implements and industrial plant, some dating back to the 1890s. From Caterpillar to John Deere, with International ACOs, Corolla tractors and numerous Massey Fergusons in the mix, Lindsay also donated funds to build a large shed to maintain and house the collection. Scheduled to be ready for public viewing by spring 2026, it will be sited on the township’s domain, at the north end of Milton.
Fulton’s pottery collection is also now in the Milton Museum, the town’s former post office building, under the care of the Tokomairiro Historical Society.
Additionally, giving back to the community in which five generations of Finches have thrived, most of the proceeds from the four properties sold will go to support charitable organisations through endowments. Interest accrued on the Finch family bequest will be donated annually to benefit the Tokomairiro community.
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