Adam Magennis

Ranger

Adam Magennis loves variety in his work, being able to travel across the state to some of the most beautiful areas on the continent, and being a student of nature – learning on a daily basis about the life cycle of the plants and animals he interacts with.

Adam has always felt an affinity with the environment. He’s an Indigenous man from the Boon-Wurrung Mob, so he’s always felt a strong connection to country, and has always been strongly motivated to leave his footprint on the environment. In his line of work as a Ranger, he’s like an apprentice Naturalist – experiencing the wide variety of nature, and our interaction with it.

As a ranger his roles are extremely varied. While it’s easy to say that his role was divided into Summer and Winter tasks, his role is much more than that! In the Summer he focuses bushfire management, including Fuel Reduction burning and wildfire response, Winter being a focus on pest plants and animals and revegetation. His job has a lot more to it: He has started on a five-year creek restoration plan, he works on plantations, with a koala relocation scheme, helping support and rescue injured and lost hikers.

His tasks are also less conventional some days - once he had to herd 30 cows which has escaped onto the Reserve, back onto their property. On another occasion, a pair of Japanese tourists were in the forest, and they noticed a snake. They refused to move, phoned the Information desk for a Ranger to come and get them!

His job takes him across the state: he’s worked in the Grampians, the Dandenong Ranges National Park, and Arthur Seat State Park.

As someone who loves variety, he’s drawn on his experiences as a ranger for the last four years to focus on the aspects he really enjoys: Cultural Heritage and Community Consultation. For this reason, he’s starting a new job.

“I’m stoked to start my new role”, Adam says, who will be starting his new job in a few weeks with the Inter-Council Aboriginal Consultancy Committee (ICACC). “Being a Ranger was a great platform – being a Ranger could give you all the skills for anywhere in government – it could lead you to greater areas and opportunities – like is happening with me!” he laughs.

His job will be working in conjunction with eight councils to serve the South-East Melbourne Indigenous community of around 4000 people.

He’ll be involved in education programs within Indigenous Communities. “It’s like a pathways program to support people into Mainstream networks.” Adam explains. His new job will involve creating Indigenous Friends Volunteer Groups, Bush Food Gardens, Men’s and Women’s Camps, and generally creating a more connected community, linking the local community with networks such as Centrelink, Health and Education.

His role as a ranger, being active in Community Stakeholder Management, is an essential part of this new job.

While he’ll be moving on from his role as a ranger, he’s always worked on a voluntary basis with environmental work. “I will still take part in about 70% of what I did as a ranger in my own private time.”

“You never know what’s going to happen. You keep moving, you need to keep refreshed, keep your skills base up. It gets stagnant otherwise, you gotta move around and explore.”

The best part of being a ranger?

The best part of the job is seeing a lot of Victoria, travelling to different locations, learning more about animal and plants, and simply, the cycle of life.

His job takes his across the state: he’s worked in the Grampians, the Dandenong Ranges National Park, and Arthur Seat State Park.

The most challenging part?

The diverse range of clientele, and managing them accordingly. There are so many people from different cultures. You need a certain hat on for certain individuals – but it keeps you on your toes! It’s also challenging responding to accidents – for example, we’ve had to do line searching. There are also illegal crops planted in the parks which the Police need to deal with. There’s also traps all around the crops.

The personal qualities needed for the job?

Be energetic, passionate, connected to the landscape, connected to country. It’s also important to be able to speak to a wide range of clientele.

Advice for anyone wanting to become a ranger?

Keep applying for jobs. If you get knocked back, keep going.

Sourced from the original article by Linda Nall, MEGT.