BIDWILL, CHARLES ROBERT (1820-84), the son of Joseph Green Bidwill, was born at Exeter, Devonshire, educated in England and had commenced to study medicine when his father received letters from his elder son (John Carne Bidwill, q.v.) advising him to allow the boy to go to Australia. He sailed in the Arachne and reached Sydney early in 1841.

There for two years he gained colonial experience and in Mar 1843 sailed for New Zealand in the schooner Posthumous with 1,600 sheep. Some of these he sold at Nelson and the balance he took to Port Nicholson. A few weeks later he joined Clifford, Vavasour, Weld, Petre and William Swainson, F.L.S., on an expedition to prospect in the Wairarapa for sheep country. Bidwill got a tract of land at Kopungarara to which he started in Apr 1844 with 350 merino sheep. Driving them round the Mukamuka rocks and the western shore of Wairarapa lake, he left them to return to Wellington for his cattle. He was thus the first to arrive with sheep in the Wairarapa. His wool was sent by packhorse to Te Kopi, on Palliser Bay, and thence by small ships to Wellington. Bidwill bought some Red Devon cattle and thoroughbred horses (notably Figaro, which he purchased from James Watt, Wanganui, in 1847). In 1857 he imported merino rams which his father obtained from Saxony. By 1879 the Pihautea property consisted of 10,000 acres purchased from the Government and 250 acres from the natives. Only 70 acres was as yet cultivated.

Bidwill took a keen interest in local governing bodies and the licensing committee, and in the racing club, which he assisted to establish in the fifties. He did not own racehorses but patronised all the meetings. In 1851 he married Catherine, eldest daughter of John Orbell (Waikouaiti, Otago). Bidwill died on 21 Apr 1884 and his widow ten years later.

Bidwill; Weld; Lovat; Wairarapa Age, 27 Oct 1923.

Reference: Volume 1, page 51

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