Tauranga Historical Society: Robert Falla in the Bay of Plenty and the Sladden Collection

Tuesday, 3 June 2025

Robert Falla in the Bay of Plenty and the Sladden Collection

From Tauranga City Library’s archives

A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection

Originally published dd mm 2025 on the Tauranga Historical Society blog.

1930 portrait of Robert Alexander Falla (1901-1979) while assistant zoologist with the British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition.

Robert Falla in 1930

Head-and-shoulders portrait of Robert Alexander Falla, assistant zoologist on Antarctic expedition aboard the Discovery; inscribed "With regards R.A.F. June 1930" (Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Ms 33/5/52)

When Robert Falla retired in 1966 he had been Director of the Dominion Museum (now the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa) for nearly 20 years. He was born in Palmerston North. His father was a railway clerk. He matriculated from Auckland Grammar School in 1918, after winning a scholarship in 1915, and wanted to go to sea. Several attempts to get work on a ship were not successful. However, he managed by determination and hard work to turn his childhood exposure to ‘natural history’ from an interest – particularly in birds - into a successful and prolific career as a zoologist, which also got him on several lengthy sea voyages.

He worked his way into academic study by getting a Bachelor of Arts with a Senior Scholarship in education in 1924, working as a primary teacher, then becoming a lecturer in general science at the Training College. In 1927 he graduated as a Master of Arts with a thesis on the teaching of nature study and biology in New Zealand.

At the same time as this work and study he was doing scientific fieldwork and publishing the results. Falla established his reputation as an ornithologist with the 1924 publication of “Discovery of a breeding place of Buller’s Shearwater, Poor Knights Island, N.Z.” in Emu Vol. 24, No. 1 pp 37-43. This is among the at least 16 books and offprints (pamphlet versions of academic papers for distribution to collaborators and colleagues) he had written that Falla sent to Sladden “With the authors’ compliments” during the 1920s and 1930s, and now in the Library’s Sladden Collection.

In 1928 Bernard Sladden was the lead author of an article written with Falla - “Alderman Islands: a general description, with notes on the flora and fauna”, published over two issues of the New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology (Vol. 9, No.’s 4-5, November 1927 (pp 193-205) and February 1928 (pp 282-290). Sladden had his copy bound with other offprints – including his own 1924 article about Karewa and 1926 article about Tūhua – reporting on the fauna, flora and geology of the islands of the Bay of Plenty.

Bernard Sladden's binding of scientific papers on Bay of Plenty offshore islands

This shows how integral amateur researchers like Sladden were in building the body of scientific knowledge of New Zealand’s natural history. He hadn’t just provided the boat to get to the Alderman Islands, he had been an active participant in the collection and formal publication of the data. Sladden could also by letter and sample keep the professionals informed of new discoveries and developments in the part of the country where he lived, expanding their geographic range.

Falla’s scientific career flourished – “In 1929 he was appointed assistant zoologist to the British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE) under the leadership of Sir Douglas Mawson”[1]. Prints of photos taken by Falla on the expedition made their way into Sladden’s papers – e.g. Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Ms 33/5/311

However, the lengthy absences this work required eventually led to Falla’s resignation from the Training College. He had already mentioned in a 1930 letter to Sladden, kept in our archive, that he could only process his work from the expedition in his spare time [2]. This is in response to what must have been a comment from Bernard’s letter to him that managing the farm was keeping him from his own researches.

“In 1931 [Falla] was appointed ornithologist and education officer at the Auckland War Memorial Museum” where in 1937 he completed the publication of the BANZARE report on birds, “still considered a classic work on the birds of the southern ocean[3].” The Sladden Collection has the copy Falla inscribed and sent to “B. Sladden with compliments & regards. R.A.F. Jan 1938”.

By this time Falla had been appointed director of the Canterbury Museum, where amongst other work he instigated the investigation into moa remains at Pyramid Valley. Again, Falla sent an offprint to Bernard Sladden “with compliments”.

Falla was a Carnegie Scholar in 1939, touring and studying museums and their displays in the United States, United Kingdom and Europe (until interrupted by the outbreak of war). During the war he participated in coastwatching expeditions to the sub-Antarctic islands (ensuring German, and later Japanese ships didn’t try and use them as bases for commerce raiding), but also fitting in some geological and ornithological observations.

He was made Director of the Dominion Museum in 1947, and according to his obituaries was always unhappy that the administrative work of this role was keeping him from the kind of fieldwork and publishing he had enjoyed in the 1920s and 1930s with colleagues like Bernard Sladden.