More than fieldwork
Often, when we think of environmental work, we don't think of people that answer phones, design newsletters, take social media photos, handle mail or process donations.
Established in 2022, our Seeding the Future internship program has supported 44 paid interns. Today 85% are working or undertaking further study in conservation and related fields, including four who are employed by Bush Heritage.
The waterways of Reedy Creek Reserve are being transformed into a forum for knowledge sharing, as three generations of our Bush Heritage interns come together to create a comprehensive weed management plan for the site.
Reedy Creek lies 130 km north-west of Bundaberg and is on the lands of the Bailai, Gooreng Gooreng, Gurang and Taribelang Bunda peoples.
The reserve protects a substantial area of intact coastal and riparian forest communities and ecosystems, which have broadly been impacted by urban development elsewhere in Queensland.
Invasive weed encroachment from neighbouring land is one of the reserves biggest threats, which Reserve Manager Ned Garlick-Kelly says requires a “methodical and sustained management approach”.
To tackle the problem, our Seeding the Future program created a weed management strategy intern position. Nathan Berridge got the job and quickly dove into the task at hand.
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Seeding the Future intern Nathan Berridge at Reedy Creek Reserve. Photo by Nathan Berridge.
Nathan spent three months completing literature reviews, undertaking interesting baseline dataset work, and getting swarmed by mosquitoes during freshwater surveys.
“I’m no huge fan of mosquitoes and we certainly encountered a heap, but when you’re in such amazing scenery, you just sit there in awe at the beauty of the place and forget about them,” says Nathan.
“Hailing from the southern states of Australia my entire life, working on Reedy Creek has been an absolute eye-opener in every way. Everything is so contrastingly different to where I am used to … it’s phenomenal here.”
Nathan worked alongside two intern alumni, Reserve Manager Ned Garlick-Kelly and Central Queensland Ecologist Stephen Kearney, to help establish a much-needed weed management plan and monitoring system.
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Ned Garlick-Kelly, Nathan Berridge and Stephen Kearney all started at Bush Heritage as interns. Photo by Claire Chepel.
While feral animals and bushfire also continue to threaten the reserve, weeds remain the most pressing challenge.
“We have a lot less control over what happens outside of our boundary, so we can't really adopt a catchment management approach,” says Reserve Manager Ned.
“As a result, we need to develop a refined and methodical approach to weed management that looks at changes in the long term. It's been great to have Nathan on board to collaborate and bounce ideas off."
Ned’s own internship journey began not too long ago.
He was one of Seeding the Future’s first interns, working on a land management project at South Australia's Boolcoomatta Reserve on Adnyamathanha and Wilyakali country in 2023. Within a couple of years, he progressed to become Reedy Creek Reserve Manager.
– Ned Garlick-Kelly, Reedy Creek Reserve Manager"It's great to see a pathway that gives those early in their careers a chance to apply and deepen their knowledge of conservation. And evidently, it's a great leg up into a career within the conservation space."
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Stephen Kearney (front) and Ned Garlick-Kelly in the freshwater at Reedy Creek. Photo by Nathan Berridge.
Stephen Kearney was undertaking a PhD on threatened species at the University of Queensland when he started as an intern with us in 2018.
He worked on baseline fauna surveys and feral cat monitoring at Pullen Pullen Reserve, a sanctuary to protect the elusive Night Parrots on Maiawali Country.
After the internship, he went back to finish his PhD before successfully applying for his current role as our Central Queensland Ecologist.
– Seeding the Future Program Coordinator, Chrissy Grubbs“The three generations (working together) show that this really is a great program, which is now becoming a very embedded part of how Bush Heritage works.”
Chrissy says the program’s success also speaks to our organisation’s supportive culture.
“Bush Heritage often feels quite like a family as well as a workplace,” says Chrissy. “It's definitely really nice to see that knowledge sharing being passed down."
Our program ethos is all about giving early-career conservationists hands-on experiences across a wide range of areas. These include field-work opportunities, as well as office-based roles.
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Nathan Berridge (right) helps Ned Garlick-Kelly and Dean Gilligan with freshwater surveys at Reedy Creek. Photo by Stephen Kearney.
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Reedy Creek lies 130 km north-west of Bundaberg in Queensland. Photo by Nathan Berridge.
Having previously focused on vertebrate pest management, such as controlling rabbits, the Reedy Creek project gave Nathan an opportunity to develop new interests in the environment space.
"It’s definitely opened my eyes towards weeds,” says Nathan, "but it’s good to have a well-rounded approach because it's not just one thing in the environment, it's everything.”
Nathan says he won’t be forgetting his internship experience anytime soon.
“It’s been an incredible journey of learning from start to finish and really deserves its own essay on how good it has been,” says Nathan.
As for others considering an internship with us, Nathan has one piece of advice:
“Get out there and do it. You won't regret it.”
Bush Heritage gratefully acknowledges the visionary cohort of philanthropists who support the Seeding the Future Program, with special thanks to the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation.
Our Seeding the Future program offers 10 internship positions a year. Submit an internship expression of interest here.
