The Lucky Country: A land of opportunities

28 Jan The Lucky Country: A land of opportunities

With the passing celebrations of Australia Day on 26 January, I couldn’t help but reflect and think about what Australia (or Straya!) Day means to me. Some people may identify with the thought that Australia Day should be renamed Invasion Day as it was the day indigenous Australians were taken over by the British who declared a new colony on this date. This resulted in a lot of discriminatory acts against Indigenous people, including forcing them from their home lands and separating families. And whilst I without hesitation acknowledge the sins that were committed against indigenous Australians because of the establishment of this new colony, I also give thanks on this day that I live in a country like Australia, as we live in PEACE with no war or blood shed around us; we have progressed so much as a society in our thinking and acceptance of people – with gay marriage now legalised as an example; and we have opportunities that are not available to a lot of people around the world that we can take advantage of – as long as we apply ourselves, and recognise these open doors in the first place. I have been very blessed in my time to walk through some of these doors myself….here are some recent examples:

THE little Baby Red Crab that started something big…

Opportunity Number 1: Having a SWELL time

Christmas Island (CI) has inadvertently become my new island home whenever I am in Australian territory and not traveling the globe. On my last trip to CI, I was given the opportunity to help…..build….an eco-lodge! Now, I NEVER thought I would be saying that, but a chance meeting at the start of 2017 led me to this exact moment. It all began with this photo of a baby red crab on its return to the island. This stunning photo popped up in my Instagram feed and I made a comment and the photographers name stayed in my mind because the image was so memorable. As I boarded my flight from Cocos Keeling to CI, I overheard some locals mention there was a photographer onboard, and as the pennies dropped I realised the photographer responsible for this baby red crab shot – Chris Bray –  was on my flight. So, rather stalker-ishly I asked the Flight Attendant which seat he was in and during the flight I found Chris as I really wanted to compliment him on his amazing photos…..and the rest is history. From that moment on, Chris and I realised we were kindred spirits with our zest for life, love of free diving and never sitting still, so we would meet often to snorkel different areas of CI and challenge each other to dive to deeper depths! Chris told me he and his wife Jess were planning to build an eco-lodge on the island and over the following months they continued to work towards this goal. Fast forward 8 months and here I am helping them to dig holes that will eventually become the very foundations of their first cabin.

Joys of working remote – mixing cement by hand!

What I love about his couple is that they keep on powering ahead against all odds, coming up with strategies to help them move forward with their project. Building an eco-lodge on a volcanic island amongst the jungles of pandanus, persistent limestone rock, lack of paved road access, no water or electricity on site, etc, etc, etc is no easy feat, but they continue to come up with solution after solution. Chris is an innovator, and faced with the fact that red crab migration was coming again and could potentially halt all progress with building as vehicle access would absolutely be affected as the crabs cover the island, Chris created a “crab deflector” to attach to his 4WD to allow them to drive to the site without killing any crabs! In all the years of crab migration, no one has ever successfully created a device such as this! Very inspirational!

Volunteers on site of Swell Lodge

Chris and Jess are relying heavily on support and help from family and friends to help in any way in building the lodge. I luckily dodged the bullet of clearing the thick pandan forests for the site, instead being on site for the digging of the 17 holes for the foundations of the first accomodation. Most of the holes had to exceed 1/2 metre in depth, which we had to dig out manually with a shovel and jack hammer.  Then we mixed concrete on site to pour in each hole. At the beginning, we also did this by hand. In a wheelbarrow. With a shovel. Until we finally managed to get hold of a generator and cement mixer! I had a great time getting fit with all the physical labour, learning how to use a jack hammer (safely!), mix cement (both the hard and easy way) and the joys of solving many issues on one of the remotest islands in Australia! Swell Lodge is well on its way to finishing that first cabin in the coming months and the Grand Opening will soon follow – so watch this space!

Opportunity Number 2: Chillin’ on CI

The Chillin’ on CI crew – introducing Tim-O-Fee & Dave

Another time I went to CI, I was told about an infamous rapper on the island who wrote a song about CI some years back….when I first heard this song, I instantly fell in love with it as the essence of CI was captured within the lyrics. The fellas joked how they wanted to make a music video to go with the song and I had this idea in my head since the start of 2017. Upon returning in October 2017, I just HAD to make it happen. Tim Maynard was the artist and at a local event called Rocktober, I harassed Tim about the idea. “If you organise it, I’ll do it” – and so I did. With the brainstorming of Craig Kitson, Jason Turl, Tim and myself, we created the concept list of the music video and roped in newest talent to the island – Dave Welchman – to add to the vocals and guitar….and voila! A music video is made!

On Location for the video shoot

We ventured around the island recording our shot list, and it has to have been one of the most hilarious things I’ve ever done! I’ve helped friends collect footage for other projects like wildlife documentaries before, but never have I created a music video. From recording the sound in the studio, we then went to each location from the lyrics and had to mime to the sound recording. Sometimes this took take after take after take, other times we’d nail it first shoot. So fun to witness the commitment from everyone to capture the right image for the video! I had to leave CI before post production was finished, but the completed product is amazing! You can see and hear the official “Chillin’ on CI” music video for yourself on youtube and Spotify. The lyrics are more meaningful if you have been to the beautiful island of CI for yourself, but if you haven’t, watching the film clip will undoubtedly encourage you to visit 🙂

I earnt this – I wasn’t just lucky!

Opportunity Number 3: The Best JOB in the WORLD

I have always believed in the saying “Work to LIVE, not live to work”. The day my job starts to take over my life as WORK, then I leave. I never want to be a slave to the system ever again – been there, done that! Instead, I LIVE each and every working day on cruise ships and I very rarely feel like I’m working as I LOVE what I do! Each day is full of learning, exploring and passing on my knowledge on to others to hopefully respect and care for this planet as I do in my role as a naturalist guide to the guests onboard.

However, so many crew members on my most recent contract have been hating on be basically because I do have the best job in the world. They see me spending all my working days enjoying the outdoors, the landscapes, the local animals and the sunshine/rain/wind (!!) in the course of my work. What they don’t see is the many hours of preparation, study, pressure and stress I endure to ensure I can deliver all the information I need to so my guests are having a high level experience. But all that work is a means to an end – which is for me to enjoy every day I wake up. Previous to this current job, my other best job EVER was as a whale shark spotter on Ningaloo Reef with Three Islands Marine. I never felt I worked a day in my life as the reward of swimming alongside the biggest fish in the ocean clearly outweighed any irritating customer, bad weather, any negative thoughts, everything. It healed my soul. And to now be at sea every day, imparting knowledge to those who may not otherwise had cared about the impact of marine debris, increased sea surface temperatures, greenhouse gas emissions, etc, through my onboard lectures – well, everyday is worth it.

On my way to “work” – 100% LOVE my job!

The point of sharing these stories is to demonstrate that no matter who you are or where you are, if you want, you can make things happen. You simply have to have the right mindset – initiative, determination and commitment to the end. People say to me every day “You’re so lucky”. But life is not all about luck. To be successful in whatever you want to achieve, it is your internal strength and spirit that determines if you will survive or fail. “Wolves don’t kill unlucky deer, they kill the weak ones”. I didn’t get to this point in my life on luck – I fought my way through lots of obstacles in my path to get here.

I spend a lot of my time not in Australia now, instead, I am traveling and working world-wide. But no matter where I am in the world, I will always, without a doubt, still call Australia my home. I am an extremely proud Aussie and no matter the atrocities of the past, it was all a part of the history of what has now become one of the best countries in the world to live in. So, I will always be an Aussie Girl. More to the point, I will always be an Island Girl. No matter all the bright lights of big cities, vast landscapes, ocean depths and high mountain tops I come across, I will always always always return to my Island Home in the end.