Everything has a genesis, and so it was with trout in New Zealand. Today’s world-renowned fishery was created by keen Riversmiths not long after Europeans settled here.

However there were several false starts in the effort to bring northern hemisphere species to these shores. With rough sea voyages often taking 100 days or more from England, and cooling limited to natural ice, the journey was arduous, as the following description from NZHistory.govt.nz demostrates:

On 20 January 1868 the Celestial Queen was loaded in London with 834 boxes containing 220,000 salmon ova and 14,500 trout ova. They were stored in a 16 ft by 12 ft ice house that was 11 ft high (4.9 m x 3.7 m x 3.4 m). Lined with sheet lead, it was insulated by 9 inches (225 mm) of charcoal and packed with blocks of ice from Wenham Lake, Massachusetts.

Live gudgeon, tench, carp and oysters, a dozen Dorking fowl eggs and a bundle of Scotch heather were also carried on board. On 2 May, after a voyage of 103 days, the Celestial Queen arrived in Port Chalmers. The ova were in ‘excellent condition’, but the fish had died. The tench had been accidently thrown overboard while their water was being changed. The fate of the two oysters that were still alive is unknown.

Ultimately, none of the ova were viable and survived in New Zealand. It was a great disappointment to the settler population, for whom the story of another delivery from ‘home’ was of great interest.

This was another of several attempts, including the first in 1864 by Mr A.M. Johnson. After 600 young trout suddenly died enroute, it was discovered that a deck hand had inadvertently dropped some white lead putty into the tank, poisoning them.

Luckily, Tasmanian authorities had been more successful in transporting ova from Britain and, in return for a £300 contribution, the new Canterbury Acclimatisation Society received 400 brown trout ova, and another 400 for their Otago counterparts.

In 1967 Mr Johnson personally travelled to Tasmania to bring back the ova, but after a rough return voyage, he was dismayed that only 3 survived to hatch! The resulting fry were thought destroyed after a flood washed them away, but somewhat miraculously 2 of them were recaptured sometime later.

Along with further introductions in Canterbury and elsewhere, many of the trout we now see are descendants of these plucky little fish and others introduced at the time.

By 1968, with further imports of ova, Canterbury boasted a good population of trout, and they grew quickly as a result of good food sources and clean water. Fish started to be distributed to other regions, and word quickly spread of huge fish being caught. New Zealand’s reputation as a world-class fishery had begun.

Finding the Hatchery Site

Tony Smith set out to take a photo of the plaque commemorating the first ova to be successfully hatched in New Zealand, and got more than he bargained for. After hours searching parts of the 165 hectare park, across several days, punctuated by more research, he finally found the plaque hidden in foliage, aided by Heidi – one of the garden staff.

Heidi assisted in clearing some planting to make the plaque visible again – admitting that she had no idea of its existence or its historical importance! Whilst there is something nicely cyclical about nature reclaiming this small monument of human interference, it also points to the importance of keeping such history visibly alive.

Tony gave it an initial clean, and took the following photos – a reminder of a key piece of history in the introduction of brown trout to New Zealand – now there for garden visitors to enjoy once more.

Side Note – Trans-Tasman Spirit

Tasmania and New Zealand collaborated to bring many fish species to the southern hemisphere, including salmon and trout – both brown and rainbow. This trans-Tasman spirit remains today, with close ties in particular for the salmon industry. Much of the food required for salmon farming is sourced from Tasmania.

References

There are many threads to the story of the introduction of trout, salmon and others to New Zealand. Key references for this article were:

Exotic Intruders – The introduction of plants and animals into New Zealand. Joan Druett. HEINEMANN PUBLISHERS. 1983. https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-DruExot-t1-body1-d8.html

NZ History Website: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/page/first-successful-shipment-salmon-and-trout-ova

The story of the “solitary little trout” Envirohistorynz.com: https://envirohistorynz.com/2014/09/28/the-story-of-the-solitary-little-trout/