Get to know Ranger Beth on World Ranger Day

This year, we’re cel­e­brat­ing by get­ting to know one of our ded­i­cat­ed rangers a lit­tle better. 

Ranger Beth works in the beau­ti­ful Belair Nation­al Park, and we think she might have one of the best offices in the world. 

On any giv­en day she could be per­form­ing bio­di­ver­si­ty mon­i­tor­ing in the morn­ing, man­ag­ing park vis­i­tors at lunch, and work­ing on trail main­te­nance in the afternoon.

Beth explains, ​“There is no such thing as a ​‘typ­i­cal’ day as a ranger. Some of my rou­tine activ­i­ties include bio­di­ver­si­ty mon­i­tor­ing, work­ing with vol­un­teers, vis­i­tor man­age­ment, park main­te­nance, respond­ing to enquiries, wildlife man­age­ment, emer­gency response, fire man­age­ment, sig­nage plans, and trail main­te­nance. And the list goes on…”

Grow­ing up in Ade­laide on Kau­r­na land, Beth’s con­nec­tion to nature was evi­dent ear­ly on. A proud Dharug woman, she often went camp­ing and bird watch­ing with her fam­i­ly, pre­tend­ing to be a ranger on fam­i­ly walks.

Beth says, ​“I was bird obsessed and had sev­er­al aviaries of lots of dif­fer­ent native birds. I start­ed native bird res­cue when I was 5 and was known as the bird lady all through pri­ma­ry school and high school, even into uni.”

Beth left high school ear­ly to pur­sue envi­ron­men­tal trainee­ships, even­tu­al­ly earn­ing a Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Bio­di­ver­si­ty and Con­ser­va­tion with a minor in Zool­o­gy. Her edu­ca­tion took her across Aus­tralia, South Africa, and Fiji, where she con­duct­ed stud­ies on birds and even had a sci­en­tif­ic paper pub­lished in Emu — Aus­tral Ornithology.

“While under­tak­ing these stud­ies I got to work close­ly with First Nations Peo­ples both in Aus­tralia and oth­er coun­tries and had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to lis­ten to their sim­i­lar sto­ries and dif­fi­cul­ties that have come with coloni­sa­tion and how those impacts are felt with­in their com­mu­ni­ties to this day.”

The tough­est part about Beth’s role? Com­pli­ance and emer­gency response tasks. Fac­ing aggres­sive indi­vid­u­als dur­ing com­pli­ance tasks and con­fronting chal­leng­ing sit­u­a­tions in emer­gency respons­es can be daunting. 

Beth says it can be frus­trat­ing to see vis­i­tors not respect­ing parks and ignor­ing rules that are there to pro­tect the envi­ron­ment. How­ev­er, hav­ing a sup­port­ive team that reg­u­lar­ly check in with each oth­er and offer­ing a lis­ten­ing ear helps. 

Beth found it par­tic­u­lar­ly reward­ing to be part of bio­log­i­cal sur­veys and wit­ness the diverse ecosys­tems, espe­cial­ly in the Coongie Wet­lands and Innamincka.

“I’ve gained a real appre­ci­a­tion for desert ecosys­tems and the huge diver­si­ty they hold, and see­ing the desert after rain is just mag­ic!! I’ve got­ten to see places and ani­mals that most peo­ple will nev­er get a chance to. I feel tru­ly lucky to have expe­ri­enced that.”

Sound like a chal­lenge you would enjoy? 

Beth rec­om­mends aspir­ing rangers gain hands-on expe­ri­ence through vol­un­teer­ing and entry lev­el jobs to build on-ground skills.

She empha­sis­es the impor­tance of join­ing local Friends groups or Vol­un­teer Rangers pro­grams and gain­ing fire­fight­ing expe­ri­ence, which is high­ly val­ued in the field.

Beth is proud to pro­tect wild areas and edu­cate peo­ple about the impor­tance of nature. She believes nation­al parks are cru­cial for pre­serv­ing bio­di­ver­si­ty and pro­vid­ing spaces for humans to recon­nect with nature.

It’s safe to say we couldn’t be proud­er of our rangers and the out­stand­ing work they do in our nation­al parks.

Next time you see a ranger, make sure you say hel­lo and thank you for every­thing they do.