I just started and exciting new role with Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). I will be working as a quantitative ecologist with the Land and Water team. The plan was to pack up the new adventure wagon and move to tropical Queensland to a city called Townsville (yes it is really the name of a place and not just the pretend city from the Power Puff Girls cartoon).
Unfortunately, the continuing pandemic and rolling lockdowns mean that I am still stuck in Sydney and not able to move more than 5km from our apartment. So I have started working remotely, which appears to be the new norm.
In my new role I will be contributing to a whole bunch of different projects on topics like koala monitoring and management of feral herds of buffalo and pigs. I am really excited to be working with a talented group of scientists on projects that have such huge scope and potential to impact conservation on a national scale.
The contract is for the next three years and hopefully I will actually get to spend a fair portion of that time hanging out in Townsville and exploring northern Queensland. My personal goal for the next few years is to meet a cassowary.