From big city teacher to the Tasmanian outdoors

The call of Tasmania

When I went to high school, there was this outdoor club, and every weekend they would go off, caving, rock climbing, liloing, bushwalking, all sorts of stuff. At the end of each year they would have a big trip - one year they went to Tassie, and I experienced walking in the walls of Jerusalem, and we did the Southern Ranges, and the Western Arthurs and the Eastern Arthurs back to back. I was 19 at the time and clearly something spoke to me, something called to me.

I had done my first year of uni in Sydney, but after that I deferred and moved to Tasmania. I worked on organic farms, and met some amazing people in some amazing places - these people were very connected to the natural world. In fact, a lot of them were subsistence farmers, and that really opened my eyes as a city boy from Sydney. 

That this is the place for me. And in that first year, when I came to Hobart, I borrowed a person’s bike and I went riding. I discovered the main fire trail, and I discovered the Godfathers as we mountain bikers call them - which are the enormous climbs over the spurs in the main fire trail - and I became aware of this amazing mountain.

From Melbourne to the Mountain

Over the years, I was inspired and tempted to continue to explore it. But that was many, many years ago. When I graduated, I had an arts degree and found it hard to get work here, so I had to go to Melbourne. I worked in Melbourne for 10 years, including five years as a high school teacher.

And this amazing opportunity came up which was Greencore. I moved to Tasmania and I took this team of young people up onto the mountain to help build the north-south track. That's where I really first discovered Kunanyi I guess. We spent three and a half months through the winter in the snow helping to build the north-south track.

During that time I got to know the city of Hobart tracks crew people, and the Wellington Park Management Trust people. Then I ended up getting a job with the Wellington Park Management Trust, and that was about 15 years ago now. I'd already done two or three years as a trackie up there so I had got to know the place really well. I think their interest in me was as a teacher rather than an enforcer. 

Lessons from teaching

I've learned as a teacher you need to be able to kind of maintain discipline, but also be engaging. You need to meet the students where they are at, and then yeah help them learn in ways that work for them individually. I think that helped me when I came to this role because we have so many different people using the park in so many different ways, each with their own connection. So you need to sort of start from there.