Welcome to Travellin Through the Gum Trees

I believe I am a generally wise for my age. Baby boomers may protest, 'no one under the age of 60 is wise'. I agree to a point as the older I get the more I realise how much there is still to learn. Though I mean wise in the way of understanding the things and people around me. Most of my brain power is used analysing the why. I do understand that education plays a huge role in how people behave.

My mission

I am setting up this website and brand to educate and encourage others and myself to get out and enjoy this beautiful country. I am very excited to learn as much as I can and share this with anyone who is interested. The topics will range from native flora and fauna, Indigenous culture, travel, camping, adventure, food and whatever else is important for understanding this barren land. I hope that through this education, a bigger sense of pride is created which in turn will create a bigger motivation to look after what we have.

There are many cases of land being closed off to the public. Reasons for this include illegal dumping, Indigenous land rights, defence operations and national park regulations. I would love to work out different ways of managing these situations that don't include completely blocking off the land.

Changing of the seasons

Just like the seasons, I change my mind as my ideas develop. But I believe that is how it is meant to be when learning. Holding onto old ideas may hold you back from deeper insights. So please enjoy the ride as I jump into this new adventure. Please take it as it is and I really do hope you get something from your time here.

Who am I?

What gives me the right to jump on here and start telling you all this?

Everything I will talk about will be from first hand experience. Transparency is a value of mine and it wouldn't sit right with me to provide lies. I have friends and family to keep me grounded and on my path. I have already had so many opportunities for learning in a wide range of situations. I encourage constructive feedback to enhance my learning.

Life so far

Growing up

I grew up on the south coast of NSW. I was fortunate enough to spend the first 14 years of my life on a property half an hour out of the main town. Out there I was free. I would walk around in my nappy with my little brother and dog rounding up the goats and chickens. We would save the fish and tadpoles in the creek when the water dried up. We collected cicada shells, fallen bird nests and snake skins. We had a veggie garden and collected eggs from the chickens. We learnt how to conserve the water when the tanks were low. This is where the connection with the land started. I am so grateful my parents decided to bring us up here. I believe it is where the bases of all these ideas I have started.

When we moved into town, I believe I felt that disconnection of my previous life. That, mixed with being a teenager and figuring out who I wanted to be was a huge struggle. We still went on family camping trips which were my favourite times of the year but I still felt something missing. Only recently have I started to understand what was going on.

When I was in year 9 and 10 at school I was in a class called bushcraft. Through this class we learnt about the environment and we got to go out on adventures. We went hiking, canoeing, climbing and abseiling. All while learning about the weather, flora and fauna, land formations and sustainability while out in the field. This was by far my most memorable part of school. (School was not my thing anyway but that's beside the point). It sent me into the next chapter of my life.

When I was 17 an opportunity came up to be part of the Kokoda Youth Leadership Challenge. I had to write an essay stating why I would like to be chosen and an RSL club would sponsor you to go and complete the Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea. This involved 12 days in Papua New Guinea and 144km on mountainous terrain in tropical weather. This opened my eyes to many different things. This included living situations of third world countries, WWII gorilla warfare and how to push through physical and mental struggle.

After school I didn't want to go to university straight away. I wanted to go out and get some life experience before I decided what I wanted to do with my life. I came across a course in outdoor leadership. It involved all of the outdoor pursuits that I enjoyed in school. I was so excited that I could get paid to be outside and facilitate others in the outdoors. Over the next 3 years out of school I completed my CIII and CIV in outdoor leadership and a CIV in training and assessing. While doing this I worked for many different outdoor companies. Most of the work was with high school kids, growing their confidence in the outdoors. This opened my eyes to the disconnection even more.

Present

At the moment I am travelling Australia with my partner. It has been a bumpy ride as the car is older and lots of things have needed replacing. I must say that being broken down in remote places really makes me sit and think. It has given me time to come up with all these new ideas and realisations. I have also had time to work through some emotions I was running from. I believe that many things happen for a reason and even though our travels have not gone to plan, great things have come from it.

I have always loved being active and eating healthy. I have also always had a passion for learning about the human body. At the moment I am completing a bachelor in exercise and nutrition. This is an online course to give me freedom to travel while I am completing it. Learning and upskilling is very important to me and I enjoy keeping my brain active.

Vision

For a while I though my life and plans were all over the place. There are so many things I want to do and so many places I want to go. There is also the pressure of societal norms, marriage, house, babies, but I'm not ready for any of that yet. Writing all of this story down has actually created an epiphany. I am starting to realise how everything relates. My upbringing has made me appreciate the value of being connected with nature. The Kokoda trail taught me how lucky we are in Australia but also how greedy we can be. My experience in the outdoor guiding industry has made me realise the extent of the disconnection. My study has made me realise how important this connection to the environment is. My travelling has made me sit and think about what I would like to do with my life and how I can connect everything back together.

I would like to create a way for everyone to have access to the way I was brought up. I believe that from a young age kids need to fall in love with and understand the natural world. We have become so disconnected that it is normal to live in high rises and be inside all day. I have met 15 year old kids who don’t know how to walk on a slightly inclined dirt track and don't know what an ant is. If the opportunity is available for anyone to learn how amazing the natural world is, a greater sense of pride and motivation for care will be created.

I am not exactly sure how I am going to tackle this mammoth task yet. I do know that I am passionate and willing to put a huge amount of time and energy into it. Research and vision boards is where I will have to start.