Fight for Manapouri changed engineer’s thinking

THE fight to ‘‘Save Lake Manapouri’’ was one of this country’s longest, and toughest environmental campaigns, eventually won in the early 1970s.

And while David Thom was never one of the frontline protesters opposing the raising of the lake by 30m for hydroelectric power generation, the Auckland engineer was motivated by the campaign to change the way his profession thought and acted towards the environment.

Thus Mr Thom, who died in Auckland in January, aged 92, became regarded as one of New Zealand’s greatest engineers, earning many accolades for having a major influence on environmental thinking for engineers worldwide.

Having served as an air force navigator during World War 2, Mr Thom returned to New Zealand in 1946 to undertake his engineering training for the Institution of Civil Engineers (UK) examinations at Seddon Memorial Technical College (now Auckland University of Technology).

He joined Jones Adams, Kingston in 1952, becoming a partner in 1957 in the consultancy which became Kingston, Reynolds Thom and Allardice.

It was the proposed 30metre raising of Lake Manapouri for hydroelectric generation in the 1960s that raised Mr Thom’s concern.

There was huge public protest and bad press for engineers. As chairman of the NZ Institution of Engineers Annual Conference in 1965, he arranged the theme ‘‘Engineering and Environment’’. But more needed to be done, so Mr Thom organised a New Zealand Institution of Engineers Conference in 1967 called ‘‘Countryside in 1980’’, followed by another conference in 1972 called ‘‘Population Conference’’.

At these conferences engineers realised that environmental issues had to be given careful consideration and there was more to works in the landscape than planting a few trees.

Also responding to Mr Thom’s initiative, the Government in 1969 brought in the requirement that all major projects must have environmental impact reporting.

One of those to pay tribute to Mr Thom was Prof Sir Alan Mark, of Dunedin, who said he had a major influence throughout New Zealand and, indeed, internationally for his promotion of formal environmental standards in the engineering profession and also for his promotion of conservation of New Zealand’s natural heritage.

‘‘I did go to Auckland to celebrate David’s 90th a few years back and was rewarded with a copy of David’s memoirs, which I dearly treasure as a reminder of the tremendous and wideranging contributions he made to sustainable engineering and conservation, both here and abroad.

‘‘I had the pleasure of serving on the NZ National Parks and Reserves Authority, under David’s proud leadership for the full term of the authority: 19811990, when many important conservation areas were established, including Paparoa and Whanganui National Parks, the valuable Protected Natural Areas Programme was initiated, and the national parks centenary was celebrated at Tongariro and marked with the publication of David’s book Parks for People.

‘‘David served New Zealand extremely well.’’

Mr Thom’s talk ‘‘Roads in the Landscape’’ in 1970 changed the way engineers designed roads. Roads could be made interesting with appropriate curves and vistas, rather than being the traditional straight line from A to B.

As well as being an engineer Mr

Thom was a superb leader and original thinker.

He was a member and chairman of many national and international organisations that were concerned about engineering and environmental issues. Some of these included president of the NZ Institution Engineers in 19791980 and chairman of the institution’s standing committee on engineering and the environment from 198690; chairman Environmental Council of New Zealand 197681, chairman of the National Parks and Reserves Authority 198190 and chairman New Zealand Conservation Authority 199093.

Internationally, he was chairman of environmental and engineering committee World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO) 199099, vicepresident of WFEO 199599 and chairman of the

Federation of Engineering Institutions of South East Asia and the Pacific standing committee on Engineering and the Environment 198791.

Fittingly, Mr Thom received many awards, of which the most prestigious were perhaps the Fleming Environmental Medal of the Royal Society of New Zealand and the Gold Medal of the ICE, and, the CBE he received in 1981.

And yet he remained untouched by this: humorous, warm, a cheerful good friend, and a mentor to many. In his writings and his actions, he did much to change the worlds of engineers and educators, and the greater world beyond. Many others have tried to do so. He succeeded more than most.

He was also a prolific writer. His books included: Seacoast in the Seventies coauthored with John

Morton and Ron Locker, 1987; Heritage The Parks of the People celebrating 100 years of National Parks in New Zealand, 1987 and Onset of the Environmental

Age : the Papers of David Thom, launched at his 90th birthday party on October 2014.

Born in Bay of Plenty in 1924, Mr Thom never married and is survived by four nieces, a nephew and eight greatnieces and nephews. — Contributed