Bush care officer

Volunteer work kickstarted a career for Megan Hughes in bush regeneration.

Hughes, 29, has been with North Sydney Council as bush care officer for more than a year, working with groups in the community who want to help the environment at a local level.

Armed with tool belts, gloves and hats, bush care groups usually meet monthly and work on sites in their area.

As a bush care officer, Hughes puts together programs to help people identify and learn about native flora and fauna.

Hughes’ passion for the environment really developed while completing a degree in Environmental Science at Southern Cross University in Lismore.

“I just went in head first and got so much out of it, and became very passionate,” she says.

But as a graduate with a fairly broad degree, Hughes says she found it difficult to get a job.

On the advice of a friend, Hughes became a bush care volunteer at Fraser Park in Wahroonga and says it proved to be a valuable experience, helping her develop essential skills.

“You meet all the people who are in the sort of jobs that you seek. It’s also how I heard about the bush regeneration certificate at TAFE.”

Hughes says undertaking the bush regeneration certificate at Blaxland College was the best way to enter her career.

“It opened my eyes to the issues of local urban bushland. It was really valuable to then be able to get a paid job in bush regeneration,” she says.

Hughes says there are 14 bush care groups in the North Sydney Council area, learning about bush regeneration and what their particular bush site requires for long-term sustainability.

“I am facilitating people who are wanting to help out on a volunteer basis in the community, so they can get involved in a bush care group or they can attend some training sessions on weed identification, or learning how to build a frog pond in the back yard,” she says.

“It is fundamentally my role to aid or protect biodiversity. A big part of my job is to arrange training and to broaden the awareness of what it is that they are doing.”

“It is quite a long-term thing; it is not something that you can just pull all the weeds out and think that you are finished.”

Hughes says she loves being able to help people make a difference through the environment.

“At a local level, bush care is the best way to make a difference. I can help to reach the local groups that are near their place and they just turn up and start learning from there,” she says.

How to be … a bush care officer
You usually have to study environmental science or science/applied science at university. For further details contact the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand on (03) 9650 1242 or visit http://www.eianz.org/