Bourke

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Whatever you think you know about the Back of Bourke It’s going to change once you experience it.

Hi, I’m Jess, I work with National Parks in Bourke and I’ve been out here for three years.

When you come out here you think It's just the 'Back of Bourke', a bit of desert, red sand, but once you’re here you’ll notice all the different flora and fauna, if you climb the mountains you’ll see its not so flat and there’s plenty of river systems and creeks to enjoy.

Once you’ve been here for a while you’ll get to see the different seasons, experience the Spring wildflowers out here, which is the most memorable times that you will ever have and its definitely not what you expect.

I think diversity is really important to me, and out here you can definitely see that with the different roles that you get to work in with National Parks the landscapes, the people that you work with it’s just so diverse - the people that you meet out here are going to be your friends forever, they’ll never forget you and you’ll never forget them.

The team I get to work with is really good, you get to work with a lot of different people and especially being in the outback, there’s some wild ones you get to know.

I was really surprised when I got to Bourke and I found that there’s so many activities to do, from different sporting activities, the social life is great because you make your own fun - yeah, you’ve got to get out there.

I love National Parks because of the values, they really align with mine. Things like conserving the natural environment and cultural heritage is really important especially for future generations.

We’re always looking for people out here in Bourke, and I think if you’re ready for the adventure, the experiences the National Parks values the diversity and the great people you get to work with.

I definitely think you should come to the Back of Bourke.

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Moving out to a rural area with our children has been fantastic and would recommend it to anybody.

We’re getting spend more time with our children, we’re not spending as much time commuting to and from work. The whole atmosphere is just far more relaxed.

Oh my goodness, when Simon first mentioned moving to Bourke, I was pretty resistant to the idea, I’d never imagined living in a rural town at all.  Post move, it’s the best thing that we’ve ever done.

There’s so much for our kids to get involved in, its just been really welcoming being here, so the town has embraced us like a big warm hug.

Bourke High School means a huge amount to me. It’s been a place that I’ve been welcomed into by the school community and the general community. I don’t want to be anywhere else.   I want to be here and wany to be helping the students as much as possible.

Teach and make Bourke your home.

Whatever you think you know about the Back of Bourke it’s going to change once you experience it.

I just never had worked in the outback before, I’ve always been based on the coast and, you know this is quite a big part of Australia, the red country, and I just wanted to go and be a part of it.

I come from a little place called Weilmoringle, where we’ve got a National Park up there, the Culgoa National Park. All of that country up there as a kid, like, we walked all of that and it was good to get back out on somewhere where you grew up.

I’ve worked in National Parks for the last twenty years at Hill End, Blue Mountains, Ku-ring-gai, in Sydney which I’ve loved, but nothing is like the scale of what we do out here, they’re large properties, large challenges, the programs are big.

I just feel really honored to be out here living and working on country, it’s part of what being a remote field officer is about. The landscape and the open country, there’s so much space, vast horizons, there’s something that really, really draws you back to the outback which makes it really beautiful and unique.

I think one thing I really love about National Parks, is you can immerse yourself in this cultural and historic heritage and if you want opportunities to get hands on and come and experience it, this is where it’s at.

People ask me ’why did I come out to the Back of Bourke’? but, it’s the best country in the world, you feel good, everyone’s nice out here, they look after you.  You can go up to Culgoa, over to Toorale, Ledknapper, out to Nocoleche, out near Wanaaring.  Now we’ve got a couple of new parks, Brindingabba, Thurloo, so there’s plenty of work out here, if you want to come out here - oh, you’ll enjoy it.

Field Officers out here and Rangers work closely together, we work together on all projects from start to end.

It’s what people actually bring, you know, their motivation, their passion the skills from their life and other work they bring and we all come together as a team to apply them. Whether it’s in pests, or it’s in fire, or it’s in visitor experiences.

Just get in and start, and they train you up, it’s the best thing - forklift, you can do your truck license if you want to get a truck license.

They’ll put you through a fire fighting course, National Parks will put you through training for Pozi-Track, John Deere tractor with the slashing grader, chainsaw, side-by-side - they’ll put you through all the courses.

I wanted to work in a job that I could do throughout the rest of my life. I’m very passionate about working for the environment and looking after what we’ve got especially the outback where it’s rich in culture and history with a very diverse amount of flora and fauna which is very unique to the outback, and I think its a very challenging and rewarding job working for National Parks - especially out in the outback.

Working for the Service, we actually get an opportunity to run programs like this - meaningful programs and that we can inspire not only people that come and visit but our next generation, so they can actually be part of the journey and also part of the story of our National Parks.

We’re always looking for people out here in Bourke, and I think if you’re ready for the adventure the experiences the National Parks values, the diversity and the great people you get to work with, I definitely think you should come to the Back of Bourke

I’d definitely recommend National Parks to anyone, especially Indigenous people - come out, do some work, help look after, and care for Country, we need more Indigenous people out on park, working on Country, looking after Country.

I was really surprised when I got to Bourke and I found that there’s so many activities to do from different sporting activities the social life is great, because you make your own fun - Yeah, you’ve got to get out there!

Come and work in Western NSW it will change your life, it has changed mine.

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I actually have fallen in love with the Western division, I started here 16 years ago, I came from private practice at Cootamundra and no one thought that we would last out here and thought it would be silly to sell our house but we've just embraced it. I live out here with my husband with raised three boys while we've been out here.

The fact Bourke's a pretty tight little community and it runs its own radio and newspaper of which Local Land Services use their full potential, Charlotte holds a little segment on the radio, so they're very visible,  it's a small community, all our kids know each other - there's probably friendships there before work-ships you know,  so I'd go out of my way to make a 3am phone call - it's a two-way street, we offer up whatever knowledge we have and you know Charlotte and her team throwback in spades.

So what I've been loving about coming out here is just learning about the different ways that properties are managed and I think that that's really important out here as vets,  we we take our knowledge that we've learnt and the best practice textbook way to run things and combine it with the experience and knowledge from our wonderful producers and work out solutions that suit their practice and their management and their program,  so the best solution for their situation, whether that means a bit of a compromise, sometimes we just got to work with them to get the best outcome for their business.

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