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Earth and Ocean Sciences, Waikato University
Kerry Stanaway, Beachlands
Earth science studies at Waikato University meld the disciplines of sedimentary, volcanic and
engineering geology, and blend coastal marine studies hydrology and soil science to the mix.
Geology is taught with a strong field and process component aimed at Recent and Cenozoic
events affecting the landscape of the surrounding region. Driven by their position close to the
Taupo Volcanic zone, the Coromandel Volcanic Region, the Taranaki Basin, two coastlines,
several large lakes and many small volcanic centres, scientific studies seek to elucidate both
the local landscape and how humans affect and are affected by it all.
The prominent Rogers family began
lobbying back in the 1950’s for a university
in Hamilton. A new university would not
merely be an extension of Auckland
University. Originally conceived to have
departments of Chemistry, Mathematics and
Biology only, Waikato University opened in
1964 on land formerly used by the Ruakura
Research Station and now part of the Tainui
Settlement. The government of the day, not
keen on another geology school contributing
to New Zealand’s “brain drain” by training
people most of whom would find work
overseas, was however fortunately won over
by the “earth sciences” concept of the first
Head of Department, John McCraw. John
had spent most of his career with the NZ
Soil Bureau and was convinced that the
country needed a school devoted to the
unique needs of his own country and its
people. Society at the time had begun to
recoil from the attempts of our ancestors to
Earth and Ocean Sciences, Univ. Waikato
form a grasslands landscape populated with northern hemisphere animals, and was just
starting to come to grips with the idea that we lived on active islands in a subduction setting
not on the passive margin of a continent. This shift in outlook accompanied the political
realization that the “motherland” for most of the people was no longer “home”. It had little
interest in us and lay on the opposite side of the planet. Local rocks, water, plants, fauna and
landscape were not merely objects of cultured northern scientific curiosity, but a southern
home we needed to understand and nurture. The land especially displayed instabilities we
needed to learn more about. John McCraw was appointed first professor in 1969, accompanied
by two other soils workers M. J. Selby and H. S. Gibbs. In 2006 the original Department of
Earth Sciences became that of Earth and Ocean Sciences.
GSNZ Newsletter 143 (2007) Page 14