McKELLAR, DAVID, was born in the western Highlands of Scotland, the son of John McKellar, of Knebworth, Victoria, and went as a young man to Australia, where he married (1867) a daughter of the Hon W. Skene. He came to Otago from Australia and joined Alexander McNab in prospecting for land in Southland. From the Bluff they proceeded northward, and McKellar chose the Longridge property. The native grass was so long and coarse that it took him and his brother Peter more than a year to get their sheep to the station from the Bluff. McKellar grew his first crop of wheat in a bend of the Mataura river below Waikaia plains station. He did much exploring, largely in the company of George Gunn, and they gave their names to two lakes. He was the first pakeha to see the central part of Lake Wakatipu (1857-58), but was prevented by adverse winds from exploring it with a mokihi. The winter snow there seemed too severe for stock. In 1866 or 1867 he sold his Waimea property to G. M. Ball. On the departure of his brother John for New Mexico in 1877, he took over the management of the Brooksdale station at Tapanui. Failing to sell it in small farms, McKellar adopted intensive farming and American methods of pig-raising and spent much money on stock. In the early eighties he purchased land in Mexico, where he created a modern ranch, but constant troubles with the natives over the grazing of their cattle culminated in his being murdered (on 26 Jul 1892).

Cycl. NZ, iv.

Reference: Volume 2, page 14

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