Protected Places Resources

07/07/2023

A major project I completed recently was developing the content for 30 interpretation signs for the Kangaroo Island Tourism Alliance by sub-contracting to Tredwell Management in Adelaide tredwell.com.au

Tredwell designed three new trails in each of the the towns of Penneshaw, American River and Kingscote on KI. Siggi Frede of effektiver.com.au and I co-wrote the Vistor Experience and Interpretation Plan for the three walks and then, working with community members and other stakeholders the content for the signs was developed.

KI has a fascinating history and has unique wildlife and characters. I hope to get back there for a better look around sometime. Armsign produced the signs and they have a link on their website which shows the final product. https://www.armsign.com.au/kangaroo-island-tourism-walks

07/07/2023

Through subcontracting to Armsign armsign.com.au I was pleased to do a job for the Coonamble Shire Council associated with the development of their new visitor centre.

I love these types of research and writing projects as it usually means I get to work with local stakeholders and I love delving into the history of places.

It was great working with members of the local historical society to develop the content for the historical timeline for the Coonamble district. It required quite a bit of reading from both books, and what I could find online, to dig out the key events in the area's history and shape the words into something interesting and meaningful considering the tight word count needed. See the final result in images following.

07/07/2023

Some of the research and writing jobs I do are quite small, taking only a few hours, while others last for many months.

A small job I was asked to do, through sub-contracting to sign manufacturers Armsign, was for the Mt Isa City Council. They were developing a series of new signs for a lookout in Mt Isa and, while the client had come up with the text for most of the signs there was one where they just couldn't think of something to write. This part of the view to the north included three key landmarks they thought were worthy of mention but couldn't find something to say about them. So I did a bit of research, made a couple of calls and was able to produce some interesting text for the "Looking North" sign. The sign design and the text I wrote are shown in the two images below.

So maybe you don't need me to spend weeks doing a job for you. If your creative mind is stuck, just get in touch and I might be able to find a solution for you.

09/07/2021

My professional career in government was in Protected Area Management, hence the name of my business. As you might expect my consulting work often is on "National Park" related jobs. But a large part of my career was in jobs aligned with visitor management, interpretation, guiding and environmental education. I used to write a lot of material for signs, brochures, displays etc so some of the jobs I get now are still that type of work. But not necessarily for national parks.

A small job I've completed recently, that I particularly enjoyed, was researching and writing the following for a sign to go at the beginning of a short walk to Combo Waterhole in the headwaters of the Diamantina River near Kynuna in north-west Queensland. Never heard of it? Read on. I had to limit it to 250 words to fit on the sign. The links are worth looking at too, especially the two YouTube videos. Following are some relevant images including the artwork for the finished signs. The waterhole photo is not Combo Waterhole by the way. The other photo is near the headwaters of the Diamantina River when we flew over it on the way to Darwin recently.

The Story Behind Waltzing Matilda
What’s the connection between a boy born in Orange, a lawyer, an 1818 Scottish tune, music heard at a horse race, su***de, arson, murder, a shearers’ strike, and a Queensland holiday? They all conspire to create Australia’s best-known song. A.B. Paterson couldn’t have imagined that, visiting Dagworth Station in 1895, he was about to write those famous words.
“The Banjo” was born near Orange and became a Sydney lawyer. But he spent as much time as he could travelling country Australia. When Paterson was holidaying with the Macphersons, owners of Dagworth, it all came together. Visiting Combo Waterhole, which was originally part of the Station, Bob Macpherson told Paterson of recent events. There was the man who had burnt down the Station’s woolshed during the shearers’ strike in 1894, committing su***de the next day, and a murdering swagman tracked by the police and drowning in a billabong. With these stories in Paterson’s mind, one evening Christina Macpherson played a tune she heard at the Warrnambool Steeplechase in 1894. It was The Craigielee March by Scottish-born composer Thomas Bulch. It was based on a tune by Scot composer James Barr, written in 1818 to accompany the poem Thou Bonnie Wood of Craigielee. Paterson wrote the words to fit the tune, and the rest, as they say, is history.
When you get to Combo Waterhole take the time to sit and contemplate these events and listen to the sound of the wind in the trees – or is it something else you hear?

http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors/patersonab/poetry/wmatilda.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Barr_(composer)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waltzing_Matilda
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Tannahill
https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/paterson-andrew-barton-banjo-7972
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0AEJ1I60r0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZWffHl-p0I
https://www.matildacentre.com.au/
https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/parks/combo-waterhole/about

06/12/2019

08/05/2019

The latest project I’ve been working on, with a team of great colleagues, is to produce an Interpretation and Visitor Experiences Implementation Plan for the Grampians Peaks Trail (GPT) for Parks Victoria.

The GPT is a great initiative and a huge undertaking that will ultimately see the completion of the approximately 160km, north to south, thirteen-day through walk linking some existing trails with (mostly) new work and the establishment of new hiker camps for overnight stops.

Our team consists of Interpretation experts, writers, graphic designer, tourism experts, facilitator and on-ground logistics coordinator.

It’s been a huge effort completing a penultimate draft of the report over a three-month period.

It’s been a great opportunity to visit one of Australia’s premier national parks (first time for me). We’ve been getting out walking parts of the trail including built and yet to be built sections. There have been some great people we’ve met along the way including through our consultation with Traditional Owners, community members and of course Parks Victoria staff who are on-ground in the park and those responsible for tourism, visitor experience, community liaison, interpretation and trail construction. We’ve also worked with the landscape architects involved in the project, tourism industry and local businesses.

It’s clear the park staff and the community care greatly about this iconic place and it has been a pleasure to be involved in this way.

The photos show some of the team out on the job. For the latest information about the Grampians Peaks Trail go to https://www.parks.vic.gov.au/places-to-see/parks/grampians-national-park/things-to-do/grampians-peaks-trail

15/06/2018

Some of the most rewarding work I’ve had over the years is working with Indigenous communities helping to protect their Country and helping to get them more involved with working with government land managers.

I was asked by Bush Heritage Australia if I would be interested in helping to prepare a discussion paper on the Tourism Options for the Kuku Djungan Native Title Lands at Ngarrabullgan (Mt Mulligan) in Far North Queensland. I had the great privilege of spending several days onsite with Senior Traditional Owners visiting sites and discussing options.

There are a wide range of opportunities that could be implemented at a place like Ngarrabullgan and the surrounding area. However, any opportunities proposed would need to be balanced with the overriding need to protect the nationally, and probably internationally, significant Aboriginal cultural, historic and natural values of the site. The use of the site by visitors would also need to be carefully balanced with other commercial uses of the site that are proposed to be continued, at least in the short-term, including mining and beef cattle grazing and management.

Ngarrabullgan is of the highest order of cultural significance, at Regional, State and National levels. It contains the oldest known archaeological site in Queensland and one of the oldest in Australia (Ngarrabullgan Cave); one of the densest known concentrations of Pleistocene and early Holocene rock-shelters with cultural materials in Queensland and in Australia; and to date the only known example of a landscape whereby the history of Aboriginal spirituality has been archaeologically tracked back in time. It is today at the heart of Kuku Djungan country and cultural identity.

Ngarrabullgan is also of high Regional, State and National significance with respect to its natural environment. It is an outstanding example of a rare geomorphic process and history, and contains numerous rare, threatened and endemic species and habitats, some of which do not occur anywhere else on the planet.

It is also of high Regional and State (and possibly National) significance through an event that took place in 1921, when a coal-mining explosion under the mountain resulted in the death of seventy-five miners, to this day the worse mining disaster in Queensland’s history.

My thanks go out to the Kuku Djungan community for their warm welcome to their Country.