Building and maintaining the nation’s most intricate network of seats
The Department of Conservation manages one of New Zealand’s largest pieces of toilet infrastructure, serving remote and rugged locations. This story follows the procurement journey that brings relief and convenience to users.
What does a sub–Antarctic Island, New Zealand’s highest mountain Aoraki/Mt Cook, and the very top of the North Island have in common?
They are all part of the complex toilet infrastructure managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC).
National Procurement Team Supplier Advisor Brigitte Fraser is part of the teams that sources resources to keep the network going.
“It’s a pretty full-on piece of work. It’s all interesting. We work with the other teams as well – from the maintenance groups that go out to build pipes, to those who fly waste out of our national parks via helicopters,” said Brigitte.
The biggest procurement challenges in building and maintaining 2,200 toilets across the toilet building network are the remoteness of sites and the weather in these environments.
“For example, Mueller Hut is 1,800 m above sea level on the Sealy Range, and a stone's throw from New Zealand's highest and most prominent peak – Aoraki/ Mt Cook.”
The access, particularly in the backcountry, is aided by helicopters to fly materials to where the toilet blocks are built. The procurement of helicopter services for DOC is taken care of by a DOC national helicopter panel.
“DOC engages approved helicopter suppliers via a secondary procurement process from this panel. The panel has been a success,” Brigitte said.
To procure and build a toilet in New Zealand’s most remote parts, DOC runs a standard toilet design process.
“This is where we issue the design drawings and either DOC workers or a contractor builds the toilet. We issue these opportunities via GETS.”
Another part of the toilet infrastructure procurement is for a very necessary ‘consumable’ – toilet paper. DOC spends around $250,000 a year on procuring toilet paper.
“15,000 kilometres of toilet paper was ordered for the 2024/2025 year, ending April 2025.
Most of this toilet paper (3,103,037 metres) is used in the southern South Island, probably because of the Great Walks and other tourist sites. Second is Nelson which includes Abel Tasman Great Walks and the iconic Tōtaranui campground (3,069,369 metres). Third is Hauraki Waikato Taranaki (which includes the Coromandel), using 2,727,160 metres.
“It’s a challenging part of the procurement portfolio we run at DOC, but it is a really interesting part of it. It enables people to be able to go and see some of the nicest parts of the globe while making sure the environment can be protected in a small way. It’s about creating convenience for users but not at the cost of the DOC estate.”