From the land to the sea: 100 years of science at the top of the south

Wednesday, 26 May 2021

New Zealand's largest independent science organisation is marking 100 years. Two of the Cawthron Institute's longest serving staff talk about their experiences.

The Cawthron Institute opened 100 years ago in Nelson. Through financial struggles and changing research focuses, it has never lost sight of its goal to provide the best research in New Zealand, writes Tim Newman.

Tucked away in an unassuming Nelson suburb, New Zealand’s largest independent science organisation is celebrating 100 years of solving problems for farmers and industries across New Zealand.

With more than 300 staff spread out over several facilities, the Cawthron Institute has made its name from being at the cutting edge of the science of water in New Zealand.

As the aquaculture industry has grown over recent decades, Cawthron has helped enable better productivity through its research into shellfish and finfish breeding, managing aquatic pests and diseases, and technology to improve farming methods.

Its research has helped scientists to better understand freshwater and marine ecosystems, and the environmental impacts of aquaculture and other human activity.

* How this seaweed could slash dairy emissions

Portrait of Thomas Cawthron, who was described in his obituary in the Nelson Evening Mail as “the grand old man of Nelson”.

* Thomas Cawthron: a most generous man with an amazing Legacy

The institute was the brainchild of businessman and philanthropist Thomas Cawthron, who in 1902 set out in his will plans to use the money from his estate to fund “the purchase of land and erection and maintenance of an Industrial and Technical School, Institute and Museum to be called the Cawthron Institute”.

At the time of his death in 1915, Cawthron’s estate was worth about £250,000.

Translated into today’s money, and including the value of the land granted to the trust, Cawthron left something in the vicinity of $120m to the institute which bore his name and officially opened in 1921.

Publicity-shy and with little patience for begging letters, Cawthron was seen by some as a bit of a curmudgeon – but he was also the most generous contributor to the city of Nelson in its early years.

Harley’s Field was bought by the trust in 1924 as a site for growing tomatoes and other experimental crops.

Cawthron had arrived in Nelson as 15-year-old in 1849, emigrating with his family from England.

Although he didn’t have much in the way of academic education, Cawthron had a knack for making money – amassing a fortune as a shipping agent after spending his youth working in the mines during the Australian gold rush in the 1850s.

The fingerprints of “the grand old man of Nelson” can still be found all over the city, having funded iconic spots such as the church steps in Nelson and the stanchion and chain fence on Rocks Rd by the waterfront.

Until moving to the labs at Halifax St in 1970, historic Fellworth House was the centre of Cawthron’s scientific research in Nelson.

Six years after Cawthron's death in 1915, his final and most significant contribution to the city officially opened its doors for research to begin in 1921.

Evolution and adaptation

Cawthron Trust Board chairman John Palmer says while the institute has evolved and adapted over the past century, the goals have remained very much the same – using science to help solve problems for both the region and the country.

“Cawthron probably has always been world-class on a tiny scale, and what we have now is a number of scientists with global reputations.

“The size has changed tremendously from about five in the beginning to 300, and the focus has changed from the land to the water and the oceans – that’s an example of Cawthron evolving over time to the problems of the day, and that’s how the trust board sees its role, to constantly monitor that.”

During the first 50 years of its existence, the institute was focused on land-based problems, particularly in the areas of agriculture and horticulture.

Palmer, whose family has been farming in the Tasman region since the 1840s, says the work pioneered by Cawthron had been hugely beneficial to them in years gone by.

Before moving to a new location in 1970, Cawthron's laboratories at Fellworth House had been unchanged for decades.

In the early days, research at the institute was centred around five or six key areas: soil, land reclamation, pasture management, stock ailments, and issues affecting crops such as pipfruit, tomatoes, and tobacco.

Some of the successes included the introduction of a predatory mite to tackle the woolly aphis problem, providing major relief for apple growers throughout the country in the 1920s.

In the 1930s, Dr Theodore Rigg's research into a steam-cleaning method to sterilise soil helped to boost yields for the many glasshouse tomato growers in Nelson.

At a similar time scientists also worked on a solution to bush sickness, which was plaguing cattle and sheep in the North Island and some parts of the South Island.

The problem was eventually diagnosed as being a shortage of cobalt in the soils – the most affected being those subject to falls of ash from volcanic eruptions in the central North Island.

November 25th 1970, Governor General Sir Arthur Porritt opens the new Cawthron laboratories and offices in The Wood.

Strapped for cash

However, despite the advances made by its scientists in its early years, from its inception the institute had been hamstrung by financial difficulties.

While Thomas Cawthron had passed on a huge estate to the institute, these funds almost immediately began to be eaten away at.

In 1917, the Government insisted on the payment of $40,000 in death duties for Cawthron’s estate, reducing the interest on the capital that funded the institute.

Some of the institute’s investments also underperformed, with the trustees putting a lot of money into the farming sector, often for a return equal to or below average bank rates.

To keep financially solvent, the institute relied on a range of income sources – ranging from bequests to grants from industry groups and local bodies throughout New Zealand.

The turbulent decades of the 1930s and 1940s did not help the situation, with the Great Depression and World War II affecting both finances and staff numbers.

Joy Oakly has been at the Cawthron Institute since 1970, arriving just a few weeks before the current Halifax St headquarters were officially opened.

Matters came to a head in the 1960s. Marsden Farm was sold off in 1961, with the institute moving to drop all of its farm-based research – narrowing down the focus of the Cawthron’s work to nutrition of plants and soil studies.

When Dr Barrie Cousins took over as director in 1967 he pioneered a major shift in the Cawthron’s direction, to focus solely on microbiology and biochemistry.

This coincided with funding being approved to set up a new purpose-built laboratory and office complex in Halifax St in Nelson.

Dr Paul Gillespie came to Cawthron in 1971 after completing his studies at Oregon State University.

The new lab would be opened in time for the institute’s 50th anniversary in 1970 – but sadly Cousins died after suffering an asthma attack just a few days before the official ceremony.

Described both as a tireless and energetic organiser and a highly-strung chain smoker, Cousins had received very little support from the trust board for the rapid changes he instigated, and had suffered several bouts of ill health during his tenure as director.

Cawthron has added more specialist facilities over the past few decades, including the Cawthron Aquaculture Park located north of Nelson.

Following a new path

While the full impact of Cousins’ reforms would not be realised for a long time, Cawthron’s new lab and research focus would have a huge effect on the direction of the organisation over the next 50 years.

Two of Cawthron’s longest-serving members, Joy Oakly and Dr Paul Gillespie, joined the institute at the time of the move to the new premises.

Oakly, who arrived in 1970 after finishing school in Nelson, moved into the newly-established laboratory testing side of the institute – where they made money for the institute testing wood chip exports, at dairy factories and soil samples amongst other things.

A year later Dr Paul Gillespie arrived after finishing his PhD at Oregon State University, via a 12-month stopover in the Antarctic.

Lab technicians Juliette Butler (left), and Tanja Wiles work on experiments. Currently there are more than 300 staff from 35 different countries working at Cawthron.

While he initially specialised in microbiology in freshwater environments, Gillespie said after a few years it became clear there was a niche to be filled further out – particularly with the burgeoning aquaculture industry in New Zealand.

“There was very little research effort in the marine area, no one else was doing it, so that was a good place for Cawthron to develop and focus.

“At that time most of the work was freshwater, but the idea was there was no interest in what happens after the river water goes into the marine environment, it was like a black box – but we soon found out there was a real need for understanding what was happening in the coastal environment.”

The emergence of toxic algal blooms in the early 1980s – which put a halt to all fishing activities in Tasman Bay in 1981 – helped put the oceans at the forefront of the Cawthron's research.

With the foundations laid by research done in the 1980s, Cawthron has been a leader in working to understand toxic phytoplankton blooms and its effect on aquaculture.

The chance to grow

While scientists were forging a new research path at the institute during the 1980s, the financial issues were still a major roadblock.

Volker Kuntzsch took over as Cawthron’s chief executive in February.

Up until the 1990s, staff numbers hovered around the 30s, much as they had done for decades prior.

However, following a restructure of the Government’s Department of Science and Industrial Research (DSIR) in the early 1990s, a more competitive model for science funding was brought in throughout the country – which the institute was able to capitalise on.

With increased revenue available, and with a revamping of the institute’s trust model in the early 2000s, staff numbers and the size and scope of Cawthron’s research have continued to grow.

As of 2021 the institute has about 300 employees representing 35 countries.

Cawthron chief executive Volker Kuntzsch says plant proteins like algae (pictured here being grown at the institute) could form a major part of the ocean economy in the future.

After 50 years, Gillespie and Oakly are still involved in part-time roles.

Oakley says while Cawthron doesn’t have quite the same tight-knit family feel as it did in decades past, the goals were the same.

“When I was quality manager we always wanted to be the best in New Zealand, to have the best labs in New Zealand – that was my sort of drive.

“It’s a pretty unique place … because we have a reputation of how we do things and how well we do things.”

Now 78, Gillespie says he had initially planned to retire at 55, but couldn’t do it.

“My career has been the most stable part of my life, I really feel a part of the place.

“One of the things I’ve enjoyed most In the past 20 years is seeing new people coming in and working with them closely.

“It’s satisfying to see people take hold and progress, I really enjoy that, so I'm glad I didn’t retire to see that part of it.”

Into the future

After 50 years, the Cawthron has begun to outgrow its premises at Halifax St, with the institute looking towards setting up new laboratories at Port Nelson in the near future.

The planned move closer to the ocean ties in with the institute’s focus on water, and increasingly on aquaculture and the marine environment.

Overseeing the change is new chief executive Volker Kuntzsch, who was appointed to in February with a background of more than 30 years in the marine science and seafood industry.

Kuntzsch says as well as working on research to help understand the ocean and its ecosystems better, there were opportunities for Cawthron to help pioneer the science behind an ocean-based economy.

“Aquaculture plays a minor role, not even one per cent of our EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) is farmed, from an aquaculture perspective.

“On land we are running out of space, protein from the oceans is a much more sustainable product. So there’s a lot of opportunity to develop the knowledge about how to grow things, how to transform something that grows in the ocean into a protein, a nutraceutical or a pharmaceutical.”

He says while mussels, oysters, and salmon are well-known as farmed species, there is huge potential to develop plant-based products such as seaweed and algae.

The vision for Cawthron's future would be as a hub to bring different groups together to help solve problems for industries and the environment.

These would range from big environmental challenges such as climate change, to developing green protein from the ocean as a more sustainable alternative to land-based protein.

“Ideally we would be the institute that can bring different stakeholders together, facilitate the process, provide knowledge and research to make sure this all works in a non-competitive and a collaborative manner.

“The atmosphere here [in Nelson-Tasman] is one which is extremely supportive of developing something that leads to good ancestry, developing something with a positive long-lasting effect.”