Frank Cathcart was born in Northern Ireland in 1907 and emigrated to New Zealand in the 1920s. He traveled by boat which took 3 months and saw people dying of disease. He arrived with only 10 shillings and found work on farms. He later bought his own farm, named Rata Park, and expanded it by purchasing neighboring land. Through hard work, he established a successful farm but died suddenly in 1959 at the age of 57 while working in the paddock. His wife and children were then able to continue running the farm.