Wayne Westcott didn’t take the straightforward route into ecology. Before he was assessing streams in Auckland or presenting at international freshwater science conferences, he was working at an avocado packhouse in South Africa. It’s a detail that makes him laugh now, but it turns out the path from fruit farms to freshwater ecosystems is less strange than it sounds.

Wayne is a Senior Ecologist at Pattle Delamore Partners (PDP), based in our Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland office. He specialises in freshwater ecology and water resource management, with a particular focus on rivers, wetlands, and the often-overlooked relationship between catchments and the health of the waterways downstream. We sat down with him to talk about his career, what brought him to Aotearoa, and why he counts longfin eels among his great highlights.

A passion rooted in the outdoors

Wayne grew up on an avocado farm in South Africa, and his parents were serious about nature. Family holidays meant game reserves or coastal visits. His father studied nature conservation; a close family friend was an environmental consultant who made the world of ecology real and tangible to a young Wayne when it might otherwise have seemed out of reach.

“Most people think ecology is just plants and animals. But there’s a huge range of specialities. I would never have known that without speaking to someone already in the industry.

That early exposure shaped everything. Wayne pursued a Bachelor of Science with the goal of specialising in water resource management. He explored geology, environmental science, and a range of ecological disciplines before finding that water resource management was where his interests were most at home, and still are.

An unconventional start

Wayne’s first job after graduating was not in ecology at all. He returned to the family farm and took up a role at an avocado farming operation – but his environmental science background soon found a use there too. He developed environmental management plans, pest and exotic plant control strategies, and sustainability practices for several farms. That grounding in implementation, he says, was invaluable.

From there, an opportunity in ecological consulting in Durban brought him into the professional environmental sector. Strong mentors introduced him to freshwater work. The career path was taking shape.

The move to Aotearoa

Wayne and his wife arrived in New Zealand two years ago, drawn by a sense of adventure and the country’s remarkable natural environments. New Zealand, Wayne says, continues to reveal something new each time they explore – a different beach, a new river system, or another landscape to discover.

The move came with some surprises on the professional front. In South Africa, where vegetation is often too disturbed to be useful, wetland assessments rely heavily on soil profiles. Here in New Zealand, vegetation takes the lead as the primary indicator. These and other differences in legislation and methodology required adaptation – but they also expanded Wayne’s thinking.

“One of the first days I went into the field here, I had to touch a massive longfin eel. I wasn’t quite ready for it. But seeing a taonga species like that up close – that was a real highlight.

He found PDP through a listing on Seek, interviewed from South Africa at an early hour to account for the time difference, and arrived in New Zealand to find the onboarding experience genuinely supportive – temporary accommodation, a rental car, and a warm welcome from the team.

The work: where field meets office

Wayne’s role sits at the intersection of ecological field work and technical assessment. He is equally comfortable wading a stream to sample macroinvertebrates or freshwater fish as he is writing up an ecological impact assessment in the Auckland office. The diverse nature of the work, he says, is what makes it satisfying.