My role the University is around biodiversity management and biodiversity
active values, so increasing our biodiversity, working with standard
practices, working with threatened species and controlled species and making
our landscaping more sustainable as well as working with rehabilitation and threatened
species of fauna on campus. And I walked into this role by starting my study
within James Cook University. One of the biggest advantages we have in the
environmental field is that we have a rainforest campus in Cairns, we have the
reef with Orpheus and we have the dry tropics with our Townsville campus and
they're all quite large sites. Our Townsville campus alone has hundreds of
species of plant and animal found on campus the students can engage with, and road
networks and infrastructure to see how those infrastructures impact the
environment. So you can not only learn in a classroom but you can also learn on
the campus itself with real-world examples at your fingertips. So now I'm
able to encourage other students that were below me in other year levels to
reach their full potential as well in those fields.
TropEco works with the Bachelor of Environmental practice and its students
around real-world application and management processing. We work with
groups like Greening Australia, Landcare and National Parks and get students engaging
with those during placements, along with management and on-ground operational
real-world application. Another program TropEco runs is Groundswell, so what the
Groundswell is, is like a compost heap where we chuck all the food scraps in
the campus and all the coffee grounds from our cafes into one system, which is
user bacteria, and we have students from the degree working with that system to
monitor how effective that's processing, the breakdown composition and the chemical
variants within that program. We also have programs like our sustainably
outreach systems, where we have students from the degree working with the public,
working with other students and staff to shift policy and public perceptions
around recycling and sustainable practices within the Townsville region
and the Cairns region alongside with North Queensland as a whole with small
regional communities. My mum worked for Queensland Parks so I actually got to do
a lot of really cool things as a kid that she was involved in and it kind of
inspired me as I grew up to do more of those things myself. Obviously to get
into those, like, roles you do need a degree. Now that I've actually
started the degree I understand why you do need it because there is so much that
you do need to know. I don't 100% know what avenue I want to take but I know
that being an environmental officer is, like, the main goal for me. Being able to
influence and have an impact that I can physically see is something that's
really important to me. I think it comes back to how it was when I grew up, you
know. Spending that time outside in the environment you come to appreciate it a
lot more and it is really important, and especially with the current, like, climate
that we have there are a lot of things that we are losing. With the way that
they've structured the degree, the experiences that you get to have through
the practicals that we do in the labs, the different kinds of subjects that we
have kind of covers a broad range. Not just the practicals but also the written
skills. In the second year, you know, we get to actually look at doing the
placements, which I'm pretty excited for, so. While I was down in Brisbane
looking at environmental management degrees, JCU really stood out to me as
it was the first university to sign up to the United Nations sustainability
goals and that's effectively a blueprint to fix the world. The reason why I wanted
to study environmental management is because I really want to make a positive
change in the world. I've always felt like I wanted to do something meaningful
and create that positive change and this degree has allowed me to do that and
also to gain a job where I'm working in the outdoors and really enjoying myself
every day. I absolutely love what I do. So I work on the Sunshine Coast and our
most biodiverse site that we currently work at is Mount Ninderry, which is a
beautiful little area behind Coolum on the Sunshine Coast and right now we're
looking at trying to remove a lot of the noxious weeds that have moved into the
area and we're also trying to regenerate some of the bush land that's being
degraded. So there's a lot of problems in the world at the moment and this degree
allows you to better understand some of the macro or the the larger problems
that we have across the planet and if you have a passion for changing
something, like such as climate change, this degree gives you the opportunity to
address some of the issues and help people understand their impact and how
to improve their their approach to sustainability. I think one of the best
things about JCU is that, although the campus is quite spread out, it is very
much small classes and a lot of hands-on, one-on-one experience especially with
the environment. I got to meet some of, like, really close friends now that I
have and then also just the lecturers that I met there – some of the some of the
stuff they taught me I've taken into not just my future career but now in my
future life and just the way I think about things. I was very happy to get a
job straight away I went in there and I was new and they were excited because
they've never had an environmental officer on-site so I was also excited
but I was also a little bit worried because I didn't think I would have
anyone to guide me but they have a head office and a lady in head office is
quite useful. She always helps me out, which is nice to see that there's
also women supporting other women. So I do a lot of water sampling. There is
ponds on-site and I sample the water every week and then I also do monthly
bore samples, which is it's interesting. I had to learn it on site, which was fun,
but now that I've got the hang of it I'm really enjoying it. Well considering that
I always loved the environment but never really thought of it as a career I would
definitely say it can be a career and it's very much an up-and-coming career.
I would say it's very forward-thinking and it would be great to jump on and be the
change instead of waiting for someone else to do the change.