Jon Dumble, who died last week, was a Queenstown tourism pioneer who played a major part in the evolution of the Skyline gondola company up to 60 years ago. The tall, bearded, cultured character, however, was active on many other fronts, including feeding solar power into the national grid from his Dalefield property. PHILIP CHANDLER reflects on his amazing life and interesting take on tourism
Queenstown lost its longest-surviving tourism pioneer last week.
Jon Dumble, who was 86, was a co-founder of tourism conglomerate Skyline Enterprises when it was formed in 1966 to build the resort’s original gondola cableway.
His main role was paving the way, almost literally, to the gondola — taking tourists in VW Combi buses up Bob’s Peak, then running the chalet up top which he helped to build.
However, by ’68, with the gondola successfully underway, he quit as managing director, partly as he was burnt out, but also because he didn’t want to be part of a big corporate.
Raised in an Auckland state house, Jon worked in then-Tourist Hotel Corporation (THC) hotels in Tongariro, Milford and Mount Cook.
He was THC Milford’s head steward when Queenstowner Ian ‘Hammy’ Hamilton convinced him to move here in ’61 and drive for his bus company.
It was Hamilton who had the vision to build a road up Bob’s Peak — he and another local, Hylton Hensman, formed Skyline Tours to take people up the road.
Till the gondola opened in ’67, Jon reckoned he drove that road more than 7000 times, getting to know its 11 hairpins intimately.
He also did road maintenance, carrying a shovel in the back of his bus.
In ’63, Hamilton had sold his Skyline Tours shares to Jon, just months before he was killed in a road accident on the Arthurs Point-Queenstown road.
Hamilton had become known for playing music and broadcasting commentary from the top of Bob’s Peak to entertain people downtown.
Jon took over, but played more classical music.
Once the chalet opened, in ’64, the broadcasts stopped.
After a three-month trial, the borough council voted against them continuing, despite Jon fighting a long battle.
Jon lived in the chalet for about three years with help from his mum, Norah, who cooked for visitors, and sister Janet, who drove buses.
In ’66, while his liquor licence was pending, he was busted for serving booze to two cops and fined £30 in the Invercargill Magistrate’s Court.
Jon fronted the new Skyline company’s proposed gondola alongside fellow co-founding directors Hensman and Cliff Broad — and later helped build the gondola towers.
In 2012, he told the Otago Daily Times, ‘‘there was a strong feeling that it would not be successful, because it was completely innovative’’.
Despite quitting the new company, he remained a substantial shareholder — and was famous for turning up at Skyline AGMs, invariably in a bush shirt, and asking questions.
‘‘He would always ask very pertinent questions, and particularly about finance,’’ long-time chairman Barry Thomas says.
‘‘He was very intelligent.’’
Jon and one other shareholder unsuccessfully opposed Skyline’s move into casinos.
Outside of Skyline, he worked in hospitality in the United States, and in Queenstown was the last manager of Eichardt’s Hotel under Mount Cook Group ownership.
For about 40 years he also ran a market garden on his 3.7-hectare Dalefield property.
He put in a solar system for water and then for power.
In 2005, Mountain Scene reported he’d created a New Zealand first with a deal with Contact Energy which committed to paying him retail rates for his surplus electricity.
Of his two-year battle with power companies, he said: ‘‘I’m not easily bluffed — never have been.
‘‘If people are going to put pressure on me, they’ll get pressure back.’’
Jon was a keen skier and tramper, though he came off second-best after ‘‘wrestling a sheep’’ on his property.
He regularly attended classical music concerts and told neighbour Gus Watson he’d once been to 20 opera concerts in Europe over about 27 days.
Jon was also known for his distinctive green Mercedes.
Hensman’s son Grant recalls he bought it brand-new from overseas and probably had it for about 50 years — ‘‘it had none of the modern bells and whistles in it’’.
Jon’s death notice says he was the ‘‘dearly loved husband of [long-time local jeweller] Ray Wade’’, whom he’d married not long ago.
Despite his pioneering tourism roles, he was always worried about the effects of overtourism on small resorts, which he’d witnessed overseas.
Pre-Covid he had this to say about Queenstown in a Wilderness Magazine article: ‘‘This place has really lost its individuality, its
character and sense of community.
‘‘Some people blame me for what’s happening now.’’
