Our windy capital is buffeted by job cuts and retail closures but the seeds of recovery and reinvention are well dispersed.
It’s high time we talked about the other Wellington. Not the one of ever-growing numbers of obsolete public servants, or shuttered buildings in the CBD, or endless bickering about the priorities of the city’s infrastructure planners.
For there is another Wellington, flourishing in a kind of parallel universe. It’s a place of world-leading science, thriving start-ups, innovation and entrepreneurial zeal.
It doesn’t get much of a look-in at present because those who are doomsaying about the city’s future hog the headlines. So we’ve ended up with this dichotomy between an apparently moribund city of shrinking bureaucracy and darkened shopfronts and the same city being a magnet for sci-tech talent and all the benefits that flow from that.
Few would disagree that these are tough times for bureaucrats who are being cut adrift because of government budget cuts. The headcount of culled workers is now about 6000 and rising. It’s tough, too, for people whose livelihoods depended upon recently closed businesses, including a number of cherished cafes and restaurants.
But it’s important to note that changing patterns of work and a slump in discretionary spending are having the same impact on towns and cities up and down the land. Wellington is not alone in that regard.
Those who say Wellington’s vital signs are failing should take a closer look. They’ll find there is a stoutly beating heart. Digital scientists, tech entrepreneurs, start-up maestros, health researchers, film-makers, enterprising conservationists – all manner of trailblazers are making their mark and boosting the vitality of the city.
Hercules Konstantopoulos, head of data science at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research in the city, is an astrophysicist who has worked in the Americas and Australia. While living in Sydney, he and wife Millie Maier were continually crossing the Tasman to visit Wellington-based friends, so much so that they decided to shift.
“We loved the vibe here, which sounds weird but Wellingtonians know exactly what I mean,” he says. Konstantopoulos also loves the easy access to nature. “I found it astonishing how quickly you can be on a bush trail, while living in the city.”
He occasionally attends get-togethers organised through the meetup.com app, which connects like-minded people with shared interests. “Sometimes, there will be a meet-up and it’ll be buzzing with 100 people, with everybody wanting to talk to everybody.” Konstantopoulos puts it down to the “surprising number of really talented people in this town”.
Much of the talent he speaks of came to the city because of Wētā, the mainstay of Sir Peter Jackson’s Wellywood film empire. It employs about 2000 people, not all of them Wellington-based, though the suburb of Miramar is very much the hub. Wētā's research labs, workshops and design studios attract people from all over the world, stimulating a constant flow of activity for the service sector economy.
Maier is a digital scientist at Wētā, and Konstantopoulos notes many of those who moved here for a Wētā role or project stay on after the gig ends. “They’ve moved on to other things. They love Wellington and wanted to stick around and see what else they could do. But they came here because of the world-leading centre of excellence that is Wētā.”
Film continues to be an economic staple for the region. Wellington is the production focal point for two new Lord of the Rings movies, and there’s an ongoing Avatar production. Regional economic development agency WellingtonNZ is aware of two television series and another feature film scheduled to begin production later this year. Add to those three more feature films that are subject to financing, plus interest from a significant international reality-format show.
Science city
Film might be king, but Wellington is also something of a poster city for science and research, despite recent setbacks. Labour in government had put together a blueprint, which came with $450 million in planned investment, to turn Wellington into a “science city”. The idea was that three science hubs would be set up, one focused on climate change and disaster resilience, a second hub homing in on health and pandemic readiness, and a third getting to grips with technology and innovation. It would have been the country’s largest capital investment in science infrastructure – until the coalition’s Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins scrapped it.
WellingtonNZ chief executive John Allen says although the demise of the Science City idea was disappointing, its spirit endures. “A lot of the collaborations that came out of the conversations that were going on around Science City are still progressing.”
Meanwhile, Sir Peter Gluckman is leading two advisory groups looking at how the science and university sectors are funded. Allen is confident new funding ideas will emerge. “Whoever is the government will have to inject funding into science infrastructure, as it needs that investment. It’s essential to the country and I’m positive it will happen.”
As Gluckman’s groups ponder funding questions, government agencies are shedding scientists. The Save Science Coalition says about 360 specialist science jobs have been cut from the likes of Niwa, GNS Science, forestry institute Scion, Callaghan Innovation and the Department of Conservation. Coalition spokesperson Lucy Stewart fears many of those being made redundant will go overseas before any new funding reforms emerge and the country will lose “irreplaceable” scientists.
Elsewhere in Wellington, and the region, there’s still plenty of cutting-edge biotech research going on. Tucked away at the rear of Victoria University of Wellington’s Kelburn campus is the Malaghan Institute. It has been part of the fabric of Wellington for more than 50 years and about 150 people work there, three-quarters of them research scientists and technicians. Director Graham Le Gros proudly points out that it’s New Zealand’s only independent, community-backed biomedical research organisation. “We thrive on this city’s ability to attract bright minds, individual creativity and unwavering community support.”
Cancer and infectious and allergic diseases are key areas of research. The institute is pioneering a revolutionary approach to fighting cancer. It has been trialling CAR T-cell therapy, where a cancer patient’s immune cells are harvested and then genetically altered in the laboratory. The modified cells can identify and attack cancer cells once returned to the patient.
Malaghan has a number of scientific collaborators, including the Ferrier Research Institute, which is primarily located in the Gracefield Innovation Quarter in Lower Hutt. Ferrier is another of the region’s scientific powerhouses, specialising in chemistry and biology. More than 50 scientists, 20 graduate students and a number of support staff are on its books.
In a Newtown side street, close to Wellington Hospital, is the Gillies McIndoe Research Institute. Its biomedical research has a focus on cancer and also strawberry birthmarks, fibrotic conditions and keloids, more commonly known as thick raised scars. It’s a small enterprise – six PhD students, two postdoctorates and six full-time staff – but it has forged research collaborations with the university across town and with universities in Australia, China, Canada, the US and the UK.
Then there’s ASX-listed Volpara Health, a Wellington start-up that has made its mark globally. Located in Simpl House in downtown, Volpara describes itself as a software provider “on a mission to prevent advanced-stage breast cancer”.
Last year, it won Microsoft’s global healthcare partner of the year award and has grown so rapidly that 42% of mammograms in the US now involve Volpara software. The company was recently sold to Korean firm Lunit for nearly $300 million, a deal that will allow it to extend its homegrown development team by 20%.
Fintech and data
On the start-up side, Wellington’s software as a service (SaaS) community has prospered. Sharesies, the online investment platform, and Hnry, the outfit that automates taxes for sole traders, are two Wellington-based tech companies that have been around for a while and are well set. Above a bike shop in downtown Victoria St is Dragonfly, a data science specialist that collaborates with governments and organisations around the world. Cogo is another highly regarded fintech for the work it’s doing to help businesses reduce their carbon footprint. And a more recent start-up is Tapi, a property maintenance company that has launched a new way to care for properties. It’s already in Australia and will go to the US next year.
One of the foremost high-tech players in the capital is Serge van Dam. Argentinian-born, he moved to the city with his family when he was 10 and he’s become a true Wellington-phile. He loves the fact that it is New Zealand’s most educated city, and also highly liveable – “you can walk anywhere, you know everybody”.
Van Dam is an investor/director with links to numerous Kiwi software companies. A man of bold ideas, he’s considered one of the most accomplished thought leaders in his field. The Kiss My SaaS network, for which he was a prime mover, has signed on more than 100 companies and they benefit from the insights he’s able to give software venture founders.
As for talk of Wellington being a dying city, he is dismissive, but says it is certainly at a crossroads and will have to transition.
Cities change and find they have to reinvent themselves. Almost all the great modern cities in the Western world have done so.
In his view, the jobs that are disappearing as the bureaucracy shrinks won’t be restored any time soon.
“The lawyers and consultants and everyone else who milks the bureaucracy … their jobs will probably die as well. That’s the bad news. The good news is that we’re an educated city and a creative city with a legacy of world-leading tech executives, whether that’s Xero, Trade Me, Wētā or whoever. So, Wellington has this opportunity to be the birthplace of the next generation of tech-driven champions and service providers.”
He sees this opportunity arising from the diminishing number of government jobs and slim pickings in Wellington for those seeking a corporate career.
“Let’s say you’re young, smart and well educated. You get out of Wellington and go elsewhere to seek a corporate role, or you get involved in a local world-changer, as a founder or by becoming part of an established team. So having fewer options in a city with an educated population is actually a good thing for entrepreneurship.
“Cities change and find they have to reinvent themselves. Almost all the great modern cities in the Western world have done so. I hope that Wellington accepts that it’s going to be less of a government city in the future, relying on lots of bureaucratic jobs. We’re going to be a city of innovation and action and disruption,” says van Dam.
Natural capital
Wellington already demonstrates that it can reinvent, and not just in techy offices and research labs. In the outdoors, there are astonishing things happening to halt the loss of biodiversity. WellingtonNZ chair Tracey Bridges enthuses that projects like the Zealandia sanctuary, Predator Free Wellington and the Makara hills conservation project, which has enabled 60 kiwi to roam, has seen native bird biodiversity regenerating faster in Wellington than in any other city in the world. “It speaks to who we are and what it is that’s important to us as a city.”
Predator Free Wellington’s mission is to rid Wellington of rats, possums and mustelids – little critters such as otters, stoats and weasels – so that natural wildlife can prosper. In recent times, its focus has been the Miramar Peninsula. Norway rats and weasels got their comeuppance by 2021, and in November last year the area was declared possum-free. So you can imagine the alarm when a stoat (later found dead in a trap) was sighted on the peninsula this year.
Meanwhile, Zealandia continues to be one of the city’s key attractions. In the year to June, 150,000 people visited the 2.6 sq km city-adjacent sanctuary, 14,000 more than the previous June year. More than 40 species of birds have been recorded in the sanctuary’s valleys, and at least 18 species of native wildlife have come back into the area.
Parts of Wellington’s CBD may be feeling subdued, but the city’s natural capital, like its sci-tech culture, is more alive than ever.
Mike Munro is a former political journalist and chief of staff to ex-prime minister Jacinda Ardern. He has lived in Wellington for 40 years.