Born in Clive, a farm manager’s son, Dawson was
raised in the back blocks of Napier and Gisborne
before his Dad took up a job as a mountain chalet
operator on Mt Taranaki.
His parents took him hunting before he could walk.
“When trouble brewed once, while dad was hunting
wild cattle, they shoved me up a tree and tied me on
to the branches until it was safe to let me down.”
From those days on hunting has been his passion.
Dawson remembers having to ski part way to primary
school in winter when the bus couldn’t get through
and by the age of 12 was guiding tour groups up Mt
Egmont! He was asked to leave Intermediate School in
form 2
“I never knew if was because of the time I took
some possum traps to school and caught the
principal’s cat or for the time I let some eels go
in the school swimming pool on sports day.” he
says.He dropped out of New Plymouth Boys High to
join the army.
“I wanted to become a mercenary and thought it
would be good training to go to the Vietnam War.
Then New Zealand pulled out of the war and I ended
up working as a chef! The army was a bastard. It was
at this time the Waiouru Military Camp top brass
allowed the NCO's to become little Hitler’s. Young
men were damaged for life, bullying took on a whole
new meaning." he recalls.
It was the second to last time Dawson ever had a
boss. Had he not got a discharge, Dawson said he
might have started his own war, a war against those
who perpetuated the crimes and those who allowed it
to happen. It was not until a few years ago that the
whole torrid affair was uncovered with an official
enquiry.
Free at last, he joined the NZ Forest Service as
a culler in the rugged bush country of South
Taranaki, but got sacked after just three weeks for
having pig dogs in the bush with him. He wound up
going awol in the wilderness with nothing but pig
dogs for company and for three months he lived
entirely off whatever wild game he could kill and
whatever extra rations he managed to find in Forest
Service huts. He finally emerged with 150 possum
skins on his back and more adventures under his belt
than most 17-year-old’s can only dream about!
For the next 25 years Dawson made the New Zealand’s
mountain country his home as a professional hunter
from the ground and helicopters, eel fisherman, fur
trapper, commercial diver and native timber logger.
Dawson survived, but a number of his close mates
died in helicopter crashes while hunting deer from
the air.
Since then, Dawson has run a building demolition &
furniture/house building businesses. He currently
runs a backpackers lodge out of an old pub near
Hastings, the "FERNHILL", where his hunting & movie
making business is also based.
His passion now is filming wildlife movies he says
he goes "where others can’t follow". The
footage that he has shot to date backs that up. It
is a life that suits Dawson just fine, he answers to
no one, he decides where he goes and he is his own
boss.
When he had filmed enough footage to put a movie
together, he could not find a company which had the
experience he required for his post-production work.
So in true Dawson style, he decided to figure out
how to do it himself. A little research into what
was suitable in the way of computer equipment led
him to believe Apple Mac was the way to go and in
his usual manner he brought the best computer on the
market. A decision that he has not regretted. What
he didn’t realize was how difficult the programs
were going to be to master for the editing and
compilation of soundtracks. That meant sitting down
at his computer desk for over 12 months before he
learnt enough to put together his first movie, “How
To Butcher”.
This DVD shows from the skinning of the animal to
the cutting up of the final cuts for the table.
Dawson says all that matters in the end is what
people think of the production. He thought it was a
masterpiece - the critics agreed and said that the
production should be used as a training aid in any
school for butchering.
That set the pace and Dawson has not looked back
since. The second production, “The Sika Hunter” was
soon completed and as the critics say, “When the
countries top trophy hunter puts down his guns and
picks up a camera then we all have a lot to look
forward to. The footage is exceptional. Most hunters
would never see trophies in a lifetime of hunting
that Dawson has on film. The whole year in the life
of the Sika deer has been included with chapters on
the seasons. Expert advice on how to hunt the wily
adversary is given throughout the hour and 40
minutes".
With a bit of market research Dawson realized that a
movie on the wild pig in New Zealand had not been
done in a manner that showed the pig in the
mountains living as they lived around the turn of
the century. No small task, but that did not deter
him. He went walkabout around the country until he
came across a mate who had an idea that he knew
where to find the Pig Hunter’s El Dorado. Between
Dawson and his mate Bill, they penetrated the most
amazing pig hunting country ever discovered.
So what did the critics say? “The footage will
never be beaten”.
Dawson says he will try and maybe he has with the
upcoming production of "The Deer Hunters."
Those that have been privy to some early scenes in
the movie can't believe what they are seeing. This
movie should have been on the editing desk for only
a couple of months. It was, but then Dawson decided
the footage wasn’t the best ever shot of Red Deer in
the mountains so he went on a mission. To say he
succeeded would be an understatement.
A mate of Dawson’s, Ivan Wilson has been a
professional hunter since the early 60’s and he
say’s that he has not even shot trophies like Dawson
not only shoots, but films for days beforehand.
Trophy twelve point stags are rare but on this movie
you will see one filmed from meters away in full
roar. That wasn’t good enough though and then he
goes walkabout hunting for a bigger one. It took a
year but he did it, a fourteen pointer holding up to
14 hinds. He not only got footage of it before he
shot it - but he filmed it for 3 days beforehand.
It has been said that Dawson is one of the top
trophy hunters in the country. He thought he had
better live up to his reputation and entered - as he
says a ‘couple of stags that didn’t get away’ in the
Easter Deerstalkers Association competition.
He won first prize with a 14 point Red Deer and
second for a superb 8 point Sika Stag.
One of the comments made to Dawson after the first
couple of movies were that he ate better in the
mountains than most do at home. That was all the
prompting he needed to produce a DVD aptly titled
“The Kiwi Blokes Guide To Cooking". Superb meals
made from wild game from up in the mountains to the
delicious seafood around this countries rugged
coastline. No Kiwi bloke or her indoors should be
without the DVD. Dawson shows how it can be done
easily and simply with, as he says, “No bullshit for
garnishing”.
As this countries only truly independent filmmaker
Dawson looks forward to an interesting future. As he
says. “Its one of those professions where
whatever you produce, you can do better. It may be
difficult but that is the challenge. Without a
challenge of those proportions ahead I might get
bored and then it would turn into a real job and I
haven’t had one of those since 73. The real
challenge ahead is to break into the overseas market
and with orders starting to come in through the web
site from many countries around the world"
"I believe it will happen," he says. "To
have a job that produces a product that others can’t
and inspires the younger generation to head for the
adventure that the mountains can bring is what it is
all about. The good old days aren’t over - they are
just beginning. Wild game numbers are better now
than when I started hunting professionally in the
70’s."
Through the knowledge gained from a lifetime in the
mountains he now takes a select few on safari
through New Zealand's untamed wilderness.
He say’s, "when you take a client into our
mountains where they can hunt wild game, travel
through country with scenery amongst the finest in
the world and prepare a meal for them over a camp
that they enjoy more than what they would in a top
restaurant, then you know you have succeeded in
treating then to an adventure."
He has an unrivalled passion for the back country
and a hearty dislike of New Zealanders who fail to
appreciate what a wonderful country we live in.
His epitaph should read... “Here went a man that
should have been born before Boundaries, Beauracrats!
And Bullshit” |
