Travelling 100,000km for the guardians of the planet
Meet the UQ graduate walking the Thin Green Line in honour of fallen rangers
It’s 5am on a January morning in the middle of Cradle Mountain–Lake St Clair National Park, Tasmania. As the morning sun peeks over the horizon, Amanda Dudgeon laces her hiking boots for another day on the trail. She’s not a morning person but she knows that sunrise has that soft, filtered light she needs to film today’s video diary, not to mention the undisturbed views!
She’s officially passed the halfway point on her journey to ‘walk the Thin Green Line’, and she’s going to record it.
It's day 185 of Amanda's 100,000-kilometre expedition across 3 oceans and 8 nations in Oceania, in honour of the brave, dedicated people who work tirelessly to protect nature from all who seek to exploit it. They are the guardians of our planet, and nature’s first responders. They are rangers, and so is Amanda.
Amanda Dudgeon interviewing Ranger Jodie in the Royal National Park, New South Wales.
Amanda Dudgeon interviewing Ranger Jodie in the Royal National Park, New South Wales.
Within this expedition, the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service ranger will also embark on a 1600-kilometre trek to honour rangers who have died in the line of duty.
From the depths of the ocean to the tops of mountains, and the harsh outback to dense jungles, rangers face extreme challenges in the pursuit of conservation, and Amanda is on a mission to tell their stories through a documentary, while also raising awareness and funds.
When you think of rangers you might picture a khaki-covered worker chatting to tourists in your local national park. What you don’t see is the danger they face every day from the animals and environment they protect. They take great risks protecting our wildest places from threats such as poaching and fire, and they work diligently to preserve sacred sites and cultural knowledge.
But what is the Thin Green Line?
The Thin Green Line Foundation, founded by award-winning conservationist and Park Ranger Sean Willmore, is a global not-for-profit that helps rangers through training, equipment, and emergency support. Willmore is a major inspiration behind Amanda’s trek, as he embarked on his own expedition in 2004 to create the original Thin Green Line documentary.
Contact spoke to Amanda (Bachelor Science (Honours) '13) during her trek about the Thin Green Line, and her spectacular 365-day journey across land, sea and sky, in celebration of World Ranger Day (31 July).
Q: What is this expedition you are embarking on?
A: Walking the Thin Green Line is an expedition to put Oceania rangers on the map, to spread awareness of the work that rangers do, and to honour the rangers who have died in the line of duty across the world.
It’s been 20 years since the original The Thin Green Line documentary by Australian Park Ranger Sean Willmore came out, so I’m undertaking a big journey across Australia, New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, Timor-Leste, the Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea, discovering and empowering rangers along the way – and documenting the whole thing.
I estimated my journey based on the average distance of the lap around Australia (25,000–30,000 kilometres), but once I started tracking it accurately I realised that by day 203 I had already done 60,000 kilometres, and was just over halfway done! So, it’s looking like I will have covered close to 100,000 kilometres.
I wanted to raise awareness of the amazing people I’ve met and worked with. They’re absolute legends. A lot of people have no idea what we do, how challenging and dangerous it is, and how skilled rangers are. But when you do a big expedition, people pay attention. It seemed like a great way to showcase the work rangers do and put a human face behind it to protect our wild spaces.
There’s 3 main elements: the expedition through these places to connect rangers with one another; filming and making the documentary to share their amazing stories; and the 1600-kilometre hike along the way to raise awareness for the Fallen Ranger Fund and the plight of rangers worldwide.
The Queensland Ranger Association (QRA) annual Ranger Muster 2022, in Abergowie State Forest, Queensland.
The Queensland Ranger Association (QRA) annual Ranger Muster 2022, in Abergowie State Forest, Queensland.
Piccaninny Creek Lookout before hiking Purnululu National Park, in Western Australia
Piccaninny Creek Lookout before hiking Purnululu National Park, in Western Australia
Hiking the Bealey Spur Track looking back towards Arthurs Pass, in Arthurs Pass National Park, New Zealand.
Hiking the Bealey Spur Track looking back towards Arthurs Pass, in Arthurs Pass National Park, New Zealand.
Hiking with the Fiji Islands National Trust Rangers in Sigatoka Sand Dunes National Park, Fiji.
Hiking with the Fiji Islands National Trust Rangers in Sigatoka Sand Dunes National Park, Fiji.
Capturing coastal scenes near the Cape Woolamai Beacon on a hike in Phillip Island Nature Park, Victoria.
Capturing coastal scenes near the Cape Woolamai Beacon on a hike in Phillip Island Nature Park, Victoria.
Q: What does a typical day on the expedition look like?
A: It’s been wild. I expected to be ready and rearing to go, but I started the trip super exhausted because of all of the pre-planning. I also lost everything in the floods that hit Lismore in New South Wales not long before the expedition began. I needed to find somewhere to live and a new vehicle that was sturdy and safe enough to complete the journey.
As all of the national parks in the Tweed, Byron, and Richmond River area got smashed in the floods, my colleagues and I were in emergency-response mode, and I worked until the day I left. I’m just now coming into a sense of what the journey actually is, and I’ve been able to find myself again and get into the swing of things as I jet all over Oceania!
There are 4 typical types of days on the expedition. There’s the classic travel day, when you churn through 50 podcasts and drive, or fly, for what feels like forever. Then there are days when you’re ensuring you’ve got a bed to sleep on, updating everyone on the journey, and doing any behind-the-scenes work on the film. Then you have a field day, going out on patrol with the local rangers. Duties can vary from cleaning toilets and doing compliance work to stopping illegal camping and fires.
I’ve also had some epic experiences in a helicopter with rangers in Tasmania, on a boat in Freycinet National Park, and even bandicoot trapping. Some of it is really cool, some of it is mundane, but that’s the reality of what we do.
Then there’s the in-between days; spending the day connecting with local people, talking about the mission of the Thin Green Line, learning about local experiences and challenges, and getting ready for interviews. There’s a lot of trust-building that comes before I whip out a camera, and that can be exhausting in its own way as some rangers are dealing with things that are incredibly tough.
Amanda Dudgeon hiking the Winifred Track on World Ranger Day 2022, in the Royal National Park in New South Wales.
Amanda Dudgeon hiking the Winifred Track on World Ranger Day 2022, in the Royal National Park in New South Wales.
Visiting a water catchment protected area with the Forest Guards, Liquica, Timor Leste.
Visiting a water catchment protected area with the Forest Guards, Liquica, Timor Leste.
Q: The 1600 kilometre hike for fallen rangers is a huge part of the journey. What is the purpose of the fund, the honour roll, and does it have any impact here in Australia?
A: The Fallen Ranger Fund is a worldwide initiative, established by the Thin Green Line Foundation. The original purpose of the Thin Green Line Foundation was supporting families who have lost loved ones in the line of duty as rangers, but it’s expanded to also provide training, equipment and connection between Rangers. When Sean Willmore met with rangers at the World Parks Congress in 2004, they showed him bullet scars on their bodies and spoke of losing their colleagues mere weeks before. He knew people needed to know about it.
The honour roll is a record of rangers killed on the front line, and I’m hiking one kilometre for each of them. When I tell people about the honour roll on this trip they are pretty surprised to hear it’s representing 1600 rangers. Unfortunately, the number keeps going up as I am on the journey, because we continue to lose more rangers. I could be adding as much as 150 kilometres before I finish.
Two to 3 rangers are killed every week around the world. People assume they are all from Africa because of poaching – and 90% of them are – but we lose rangers everywhere, including here in Oceania. No one knows just how dangerous it is.
There’s illegal logging in South East Asia and the Pacific, Indian communities living hand-to-mouth and taking things from parks to survive. In South America, rangers are threatened and killed because they are seen as a threat to those growing drug crops in protected areas.
There was a helicopter accident in New Zealand a few years ago, in which multiple rangers were killed, and there have been many Australian rangers lost in wildfires in the past. We lost an amazing young ranger to a shark attack in Queensland a few years ago, and another to a crocodile attack in the Northern Territory.
We also had an environmental officer who was shot by a farmer in New South Wales, and we know rangers that have received death threats from their own communities because they must do difficult things like manage wild horses in Kosciusko.
We are lucky to have amazing health and safety in Australia, but there’s only so much you can do when working in wild places, fighting fires, floods, and working with dangerous animals.
Q: What impact do you hope the film and expedition will have on rangers?
A: So much of what we do is incredibly taxing. We are huge nature lovers, but an unfortunate part of our job involves euthanising animals. When it comes to fighting wildfires, we make up almost 90% of that effort. Many rangers live on parks and, when natural disasters occur, they lose their homes and belongings while fighting to protect parks all the while.
There are also a lot of fatalities in our parks. But in Australia, rangers aren’t legally considered ‘first responders’ so they don’t get the same support as other emergency services. This is despite often being the first on scene and being trained to provide advanced resuscitation.
There have been instances when rangers have had to look after bodies for multiple days until forensics teams can get there. And in some cases, bodies have never been found.
There’s complex trauma that comes from experiences like that, and interviewing rangers who have been through these experiences was incredibly difficult. But they are so passionate. One ranger told me ‘I had no idea that other people actually cared about what we do’. Another said it was ‘so nice to know we are a part of something bigger. It’s important for us to get that perspective again… that we are part of something huge.’
You can tell in those moments that being able to make this film, and share their stories is important.
So, I hope the impact is that people feel recognised for what they’re doing, that it raises awareness more broadly and connects rangers to one another. Hopefully, we also raise some money to ensure rangers get the support they need, including mental health support.
Q: What will the money raised from this expedition go towards?
A: My expedition is raising money specifically for the Oceania Ranger Fund, and that supports Ranger to Ranger initiatives for our First Nations rangers and the rangers in pacific island nations.
A lot of the rangers in the smaller islands aren’t supported by governments – in places like the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, many of the rangers work for free.
We have taken uniforms for rangers in the Solomon Islands, Samoa, and Papua New Guinea. It might seem like a small thing, but it helps them to be recognised and respected in their community and gives them a sense of pride in belonging to something bigger.
The Rangers of Tenkile Conservation Alliance at Lumi Base in the Torricelli Mountain Range, northern Papua New Guinea.
The Rangers of Tenkile Conservation Alliance at Lumi Base in the Torricelli Mountain Range, northern Papua New Guinea.
We had an incredible experience in Papua New Guinea. I was joined by 3 Queensland rangers, and when we arrived in the village of Lumi there were 85 rangers lined up down the road waiting to welcome us, all wearing their uniforms. This was an astounding effort.
Many of them had walked more than 24 hours through bushland to meet us. They hand-slashed kilometres of trail using machetes just so we could hike to the nearest villages and meet their communities. We were so overwhelmed by the sense of shared purpose and connection – it transcended the boundaries or race, culture or privilege.
They were bursting with pride to share knowledge, and it was life-changing for us in turn. It just reaffirmed the importance of the trip and connecting rangers across Oceania.
Amanda Dudgeon with the Bardi Jawi Oorany Rangers, who look after the Bardi Jawi Indigenous Protected Area at the top of the Dampier Peninsula, Western Australia.
Amanda Dudgeon with the Bardi Jawi Oorany Rangers, who look after the Bardi Jawi Indigenous Protected Area at the top of the Dampier Peninsula, Western Australia.
We also want to support First Nations rangers to go to global conferences and meet others who are facing similar challenges. They are trying to balance living on country, caring for country, eco-tourism, sustainability, and cultural practices. For example, Maasai warriors in Kenya have a cultural tradition of killing a lion to become a warrior. How do you balance a cultural practice and tradition like that, with sustainability and caring for the wild? Building a global support network of First Nations rangers is hugely impactful and can help in finding solutions to these challenges.
Q: Why did you decide to become a ranger?
A: Barry Nolan is the reason I became a ranger.
Back when I was studying area management at UQ with Emeritus Professor Marc Hockings, we travelled around Queensland for 3 weeks, and Barry was the ranger in charge at Airlie Beach.
He worked with community and volunteers to relocate brush-tailed rock wallabies to an offshore island. He was so passionate and in the thick of it all the time. His view was – while you do need the technical skills required – if you don’t have a community focus and you aren’t holistic in how you approach being a ranger, then there’s no point.
That really struck a chord with me – Barry fought for conservation and planted the seed that you can make a difference as a ranger. I had never considered doing it before meeting him and he changed my life trajectory. I just knew in my heart that being a ranger was what I was meant to do. I wanted to make a difference to something bigger than myself, and as soon as I started I knew I was with my people.
That said, I did originally want to be a geologist or archaeologist, and I’m also someone who loves geography, so I’m VERY excited to be hiking in New Zealand as part of this expedition.
Q: What advice do you have for anyone who’s thinking about becoming a ranger?
A: Study something you are genuinely passionate about. Don’t do a degree just to become a ranger. Do your honours or PhD in something that fascinates you.
You can become a ranger at any point in your life, and often the most wonderful and valuable rangers are often onto their second or third career; they have life experience, they know their own strength and resilience.
Having a speciality also provides the diversity we need to care for our parks. For example, my background is geography, and I’m one of the few people in our team with that experience, but it’s critical to what we do. It could be ecology, eco-tourism, even education! We need all these skills to protect our wild places, so study something you love as your priority.
Rangers are somewhere between Russel Coight (for the humour - we don’t take ourselves too seriously), Steve Irwin (with our passion, eagerness, and occasional hyperactivity) and David Attenborough (for our level of respect for the environment), so if that sounds like you than it could be a good option!
Nothing is beneath you as a ranger, so you need to be resilient. You could be dealing with toilets, you could be choppered into a remote area to put in monitoring cameras or traps for wildlife research. You may also need to do hard and sobering things like fighting fires or euthanising sick animals, which is the hardest thing to do and takes a piece of you every time.
The breadth of work we do is huge and you will be a jack of all trades. You can be a total city kid and still love it, you just need to be an open-minded person who loves a challenge and has a passion for protecting our wild places.
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