Dr Barrie Wills said the Earnscleugh research nursery he operated on land owned by L and M Mining had its origins in a facility originally owned by the Crown and operated by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in the 1940s.
The nursery beside the Fraser River had since been run by the Ministry of Works, HortResearch, the Landcare Crown Research Institute and AgResearch, he said.
Dr Wills took over the lease in 2004, having worked there since the 1980s, when it was known as the Plant Materials Centre.
L and M recently terminated Dr Wills' lease, and he left the property at the end of July.
"It's effectively cut the final link with the dryland research programme conducted there for the past 30 years, and the horticultural one before that."
In the 1990s, the property was bought by Mintago Investments Ltd during its feasibility study into alluvial gold-mining on the Earnscleugh Flats.
Dr Wills said some research it undertook at the time focused on producing a comprehensive report detailing restoration, revegetation and shelter establishment post-mining.
L and M Mining acquired Mintago, along with its gold-mining proposal, in the late 1990s.
"When gold prices soared after the 2007-08 economic crash, L and M announced their decision to proceed with an open-cast alluvial gold-mining operation on the Earnscleugh flats," he said.
Construction work progressed in winter 2009 and a large spoil heap was now rapidly encroaching on the nursery, Dr Wills said.
With an eye on the future, a scaled-down nursery had been established on a private property at Chatto Creek, where a collection of unique and important plants was being kept, Dr Wills said.
L and M Mining had no comment to make on the termination of the lease.
