The voyage was organised by William Soltau Davidson, the British-based general manager of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company, which held more than one million hectares of land across the two countries. <\/p>\n
Davidson had closely followed refrigeration experiments from 1876, which demonstrated that shipping frozen meat over long distances was technically possible. <\/p>\n
In 1881, he arranged for the Dunedin to be fitted with a coal-powered Bell Coleman refrigeration system capable of cooling the ship\u2019s hold to approximately 22C below outside temperature.<\/p>\n
Thomas Brydone, a company employee, travelled to Britain to study refrigeration technology before overseeing preparations in New Zealand. <\/p>\n
Much of the initial cargo came from Brydone\u2019s slaughterhouse at Totara Estate near \u014camaru. <\/p>\n
The carcasses were chilled on site, transported by rail to Port Chalmers, and frozen aboard the vessel. <\/p>\n
Despite mechanical challenges, nearly 10,000 carcasses were frozen over two months, with about 5000 loaded for departure.<\/p>\n
During the voyage, the ship became becalmed in the tropics, and problems arose with air circulation in the hold. <\/p>\n
Captain John Whitson entered the freezing chamber to cut additional air holes, an action that nearly cost him his life but ultimately helped preserve the cargo. <\/p>\n
When the Dunedin arrived in London in late May, only one carcass was condemned, and the quality of the meat was widely praised.<\/p>\n
The success of this shipment demonstrated the viability of refrigerated transport and laid the foundation for New Zealand\u2019s multibillion-dollar meat export industry. <\/p>\n
It also supported the development of the owner-operated family farm as the dominant rural economic model for much of the following century. <\/p>\n
The Dunedin completed a further nine voyages before disappearing in the Southern Ocean in 1890.<\/p>\n
Today, National Lamb Day recognises this innovation and its enduring impact.<\/p>\n
To celebrate this achievement, farmer organisation Ag Proud and Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ) Inc are leading the planning of activities with support from B+LNZ Ltd and the Meat Industry Association. <\/p>\n
With added support from principal partners Rabobank and FMG, this year\u2019s National Lamb Day is set to be bigger and better than ever.<\/p>\n
One of the main celebratory events will be held on February 11, a parliamentary BBQ hosted by Agricultural Minister Todd McClay to highlight the red meat sector. <\/p>\n
The Country with Jamie Mackay will broadcast live from the event, which will be attended by MPs from across all political parties, farmers, and industry representatives.<\/p>\n
National Lamb Day serves as a reminder of New Zealand\u2019s history of agricultural innovation, resilience, and global trade connections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The voyage was organised by William Soltau Davidson, the British-based general manager of the New Zealand and Australian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[155287,26216,20467,6186,155288,5972,110924,12940,3214,6750,1888,25822,1861,221,44405,3822,4505,3556,111,43,139,69,20793,14907,223,96878,2963],"class_list":["post-275569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-155287","tag-agricultural","tag-britain","tag-changed","tag-commemorates","tag-day","tag-defining","tag-dunedins","tag-exports","tag-february","tag-first","tag-frozen","tag-history","tag-how","tag-lamb","tag-meat","tag-moment","tag-national","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-shipment","tag-successful","tag-the","tag-voyage","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}