I had a wonderful time at the Better Border Biosecurity (B3) conference in Wellington, New Zealand. Such a pretty city by the bay. The venue was Te Papa Tongarewa, an incredible museum and one I had been hoping to visit for years.

I gave a presentation about the Training Centre and opportunities for trans-Tasman collaborations. One of our partners is Plant and Food Research, now a group within the newly formed Bioeconomy Science Institute. I outlined ways we are already contributing, for example one of our students is visiting New Zealand this year for a placement to learn a laboratory technique, and ideas for more we can do.

The conference was a lot of fun. There was a poetry contest for biosecurity-themed haikus (a Japanese three-line poem) and whakatauki (a Māori proverb or saying). Check out the excellent entries.

My favourite presentation was by John Kean in the AgResearch group of the Bioeconomy Science Institute. He memorably invented a dance move called ‘holding back the wave’ which demonstrates our role in biosecurity in preventing incursions.

John Kean will be giving a seminar titled Darwin and the exploding trousers: Assessing an existential risk after two centuries of biological invasions in New Zealand on Monday, 1 December 2025 at 12pm Canberra time. Join us online or in person in the Robertson Building, at the Australian National University, Canberra. All welcome! He will also be giving a keynote speech at the Australian and New Zealand Entomological Societies conference in Canberra that week.

Here’s some pictures of my co-presenters from Australia: Jo Luck, PBRI, Ken Young, GRDC, Mila Bristow, HortInnovation, Callum Fletcher, DAFF NAQS, myself, and Rabia Ali, a PhD scholar at Macquarie University and one of the 2024 Ritman Scholars.

All photos are courtesy of the B3 Conference.

It was a wonderful opportunity to present and network with colleagues in New Zealand. I hope to see many of them again at the PBRI Symposium in Melbourne, May 2026.