Name: Louisa

Job Title: Graduate Officer, Natural Environment Programs, Forest Fire and Regions, Department of Environment, Land Water and Planning

University: Deakin University

University course: Bachelor of Environmental Science (Environmental Management and Sustainability)

Year of Graduation: 2017

6:30 First alarm

6:40 Quick wake up, quick breakfast and spend time with the dog

7:00 – 8:00 PODCASTS, PODCASTS & PODCASTS! 1 hour with Richard Fidler from Conversations

8:00 – 8:30 Cup of tea and using Trello planner to plan for the day. Listing all the tasks, emails and people to follow up.

8:30 – 9:00 Respond to a variety of emails ranging from Hair Pin Banksia presentation invites, requests to work with Koalas on French Island or someone has decided to remove vegetation on Crown Land with no permit.

9:00 – 10:00 Drive to a conservation reserve to feed/survey the Helmeted Honeyeater (HeHo).

11:00 – 2:00 Prepare HeHo food, head out to the site with team mates and put out food. Record the birds feeding at the station by their leg band. Once finished, head back to the office.

3:00 – 3:15 Respond to customer enquiries. Examples could be coastal crown land boundaries enquiries, land management enquiries, Committee of Management enquiries.

3:15 – 3:30 Seek advice on a Crown Land boundary, native title, coastal land from a planning specialist colleague, for a customer enquiry.

3:30 – 4:00 Meeting to debrief on one of a variety of projects (e.g. stakeholder analysis, crown land assessment, native vegetation removal permits).

4:00 Send off final emails/call councils for advice on a range of topics/seek advice from other colleagues

4:30 – 5:00 Leave work – 1 more hour of Richard Fidler podcast.

5:00 Prepare a delicious dinner full of veggie goodness

6:00 RELAX!

7:00 Yoga and meditation – most important part of the day!

8:30 Read and bed.

A few tips.

Being a graduate is awesome, as there is great flexibility in your work and projects you can join. If you hear of an awesome project, put your hand up, your help would most likely be greatly appreciated.

Clear and concise communication makes all the difference. Networking (chatting to people in other teams) is integral to understanding the roles and

functions of other teams. A lot of my day revolves around asking advice from colleagues in different teams regarding coastal crown land boundaries to plant identification.

Photo 1. Working with the French Island Koala Management Program

Photo 2. Surveying Hairpin banksia using a GoPro on a stick to take photos of the seed pods after a planned burn.