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How is the position different to other rangers who work in a national park?
The Resource Ranger's work targets the natural resources of the protected estate. Resource Rangers don't usually participate in on ground management issues such as infrastructure construction and maintenance, track construction, visitor management or any of the other "nuts and bolts" work within the estate.
It can be "all-hands-on deck" though in emergency situations like wild fires, flooding, cyclones and other natural disasters or emergencies such as car accidents or lost hikers. You end up on a variety of quite bizarre enterprises as a Resource Ranger; nothing like trying to refloat a stranded Minke Whale in the middle of winter at 2.00am on a freezing morning, top of Fraser Island.
Do you require special training to become a Resource Ranger?
Not particularly, but you do need to have a keen interest and a fairly thorough working knowledge of Australian flora and fauna; and be prepared to put in a lot of leg work and unpaid hours doing surveys. Animals don't keep office hours. You also spend a lot of time sleeping on the ground and eating tinned food. The best time for getting good survey results is usually the worst time to be working in the bush; usually hot, humid and mosquito-ridden nights around November to January when all sane people are at home in front of television watching the cricket in air-conditioned comfort. You do need to have a university degree to get a job as a Resource Ranger in Queensland, however.
Are there many Resource Rangers in Queensland?
Not sure these days. In my area there are presently four. I'm stationed in Toowoomba but there is another in Charleville, one in Kingaroy and the third in Roma.
What is your particular interest in Girraween National Park?
I'm particularly interested in the park's fauna and, to a lesser extent, the flora.
When was your first professional visit to Girraween and what was it for?
I took part in a general fauna survey of the South Bald Rock area of the park in 2002. I've been coming back on general and specific species survey and monitoring irregularly from that date to the present (2016).
How do you do fauna surveys in a place like Girraween? Do you set special traps or just look for the animals?
A bit of both depending on what sort of survey you're doing. For a general fauna survey you try to cover as many techniques as possible; including pit-fall trapping, Elliot and wire-cage trapping and harp-trapping, at least. If there is a waterbody or waterway in the area you might also do freshwater turtle and fish trapping and you always do incidental fauna recording that entails methods such as birdwatching with binoculars and/or telescopes, log and stone rolling, litter-raking, spot-lighting for frogs, nocturnal mammals, owls etc..
I'm keen on invertebrates, especially dragonflies, so I always try to do some hand-netting for these animals - and butterflies - and light-trapping for moths and beetles etc.. If you're doing work targeting a specific animal, for example a rare and threatened lizard, then you tailor your method to the species.
It must be pretty active work?
It can be initially. Setting up pit-fall buckets and drift line can be very labour intensive for a few days, especially if you're digging in hard or rocky soils. A day digging pit-falls in baked hard Brigalow clays makes you wonder why you didn't finish that accounting degree.
Once you've established your sites it's not too bad, but the days are very long as you need to constantly monitor your sites to guard against any animals captured succumbing to heat stress or predation - especially from ants. The rule is not to keep captured animals any longer than it is necessary to identify the creature. You are obliged ethically to cause as little stress or discomfort to your captives as is possible.
Some animals get quite accustomed to being trapped. It's a free feed and bandicoots, especially, become quite "trap-happy". I've been rebaiting traps in a trap line and heard the trap I've just rebaited go off, only to find a bandicoot already in it, tucking into the bait. Quite often it's an individual that you've trapped on preceding nights.
I guess after being out in the field, you then have the fun job of going back to the office to write up reports of all your findings, so that the information you've collected can be used to help manage/protect the species you were surveying?
Yes, mate, you've got to take the bad with the good.
Had you ever been to Girraween before that 2002 visit?
Yes, many times to look at the natural history of the park, as well as to camp and bushwalk.
Has much changed since you first visited Girraween?
There has been quite a change in infrastructure since I first visited the park. Upgrades of facilities have been ongoing, especially in response to the great increase of patronage in the intervening years. It's a very comfortable camp there these days, irrespective of time of year.
From my perspective as a natural historian, the main change that I've noticed is the more prolonged dry periods that have reflected on areas of biological significance. I'm thinking particularly of the wet heaths and the fauna and flora especially adapted to this ecosystem. Vegetation structure is altering noticeably with woodland trees and shrubs encroaching on and displacing this critical habitat. Habitat specific species to these wet heaths are declining and some species such as the Southern Emu-wren seem to have disappeared completely from the park.
Is this drying out of wet heaths a trend that you are seeing in other national parks, or just in Girraween?
I can't really give a definitive answer on this, I'm afraid.
Do you visit Girraween very often?
About an half dozen times a year.
How long do you usually stay for?
From a weekend to 10 days. Some of the visits last to 10 days when work projects are involved.
What sort of things do you do while you are there?
I'm particularly interested in reptiles, so I spend quite a bit of time looking for and recording these animals. I'm also very interested in the park's freshwater fishes - especially the River Blackfish, as well as its terrestrial orchids, carnivorous plants, fungi and invertebrates - such as the scorpions, centipedes, land snails, freshwater crayfish and dragonflies and damselflies. All nature interests me.
With being interested in so many different things, you must be very busy when you visit and have long days?
You surely do, especially if you're doing night work on bats, frogs, geckos and other nocturnal critters.
I guess you wouldn't work regular office hours?
True.
Who do you work with while you are there?
I usually work with the local rangers, friends generally and particularly some from the Queensland Museum, as well as student volunteers from the University of Queensland - Gatton and St. Lucia campuses.
When you visit Girraween, do you camp out in some of the more remote parts of the park?
It depends on the work you're doing and the area you're working in.
Have you made any interesting discoveries in Girraween?
It was heartening when I recorded the first Rufous Bettong in the park after it was thought to be locally extinct in the area for many years. There have been lots of memorable moments over my career as a Resource Ranger in Girraween N.P.. It's great when you can see Diamond Firetails, Mountain Galaxias, Turquoise Parrots and Leaf-tailed Geckos in a day without any too great a physical effort. I'm not big on "physical effort".
Have you experienced any major fires, floods or other natural disasters while you were there?
Fortunately not, but I have seen the aftermaths - some of which are not necessarily bad. Just last week (May 2016) I saw the aftermath of the 2014 wildfires in the guise of a massive recruitment of young plants of the rare and threatened Macrozamia viridis, a cycad endemic to the park and a few adjoining private properties. They were thriving in response to that fire - "it's an ill wind ..." as the old saying goes.
It's really good to hear that the Macrozamia survived the fires. Are there any species you think the fires were particularly bad for?
It depends on how hot the fires are. Most Australian ecosystems are fire-driven and animals and plants have generally adapted to survive fire, in fact many plants need fire to reproduce. If the fire is too hot then it will have detrimental effects on flora and fauna. This shouldn't happen if an appropriate burning regime has been instigated for that area.
Some vegetation types are very sensitive to fire and fire should be excluded at all costs from such areas. Rain forest, dry vine scrub and Brigalow are some examples of fire sensitive communities, whereas grasslands are at the other end of the fire spectrum and need quite regular burning.
Did it ever snow while you were in Girraween?
No; like my beloved reptiles I studiously avoid anything cold - except beer.
What do you like most about Girraween?
The fauna and flora and its dramatic landscape. Also its close proximity to the Granite Belt wineries and Italian food! I have a lot of good friends who work in the park and/or live in the area, as well. I often combine my visits, official or otherwise, with a visit to the nearby Sundown National Park; another great area of fauna and flora diversity, and impressive landscapes.
Do you ever visit the park just for recreational purposes - for holidays?
Yes; my wife Betty and I often do a day trip from Toowoomba just to enjoy the park. It's a long drive, but a coffee at Vincenzo's en route always gives the necessary kick along.
What is your fondest memory of your visits to the park?
When a Spotted-tailed Quoll wandered into my camp quite unconcerned about my close proximity. That was about 30 years ago. It was the first quoll of any species that I'd ever seen and I've only seen about a dozen since.
Do you have any other interesting stories or anecdotes you'd like to share?
Too many to recount and some probably not suitable for a public forum - like the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the rare and threatened frog Litoria subglandulosa in the park. Some things should always retain an air of mystery about them; makes life all that more interesting.
Thank you.
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