Amanda Dudgeon - be the change

Modern-day super heroes are invisible, but many are just in disguise.
Meet the ranger with mermaid hair and the heart of SuperGirl… to witness what a call for justice looks like.

Amanda and I met over 10 years ago in the first year of uni. When she left to go back to Australia we decided to write letters to each other and send gifts from time to time. What we thought would last a year, became a pen-pal friendship of almost 14 years!!
So when I interviewed her for IHG it became a two hour talk about life, personal interests and missions. We discovered a shared passion for Korean long-ass-series and Studio Ghibli movies. Not to mention our very recent love for super heroes (no Mandz I won’t share you went to a cosplay event - *insert eyes emoji).
But what struck me to truly realise is that we both want to be the change we want to see in the world and strongly believe that is the only way to actually do something meaningful - aka you do by being. Obviously what we want to see shows up differently and yet is complementary…

Tanya Gervasi: I'm gonna start with something I read in your bio, which is,
I have always walked my own path to make a difference in the world.

Amanda Dudgeon: True that.

How did you know it was your path?

I suppose I've never understood, from when I was like a kid, other people who are like Oh, I don't really know what I want to do or didn't know what to do at the sort of those big moments in your life, those forks in the road.

I've always known what that step was. It wasn't always the popular one, and it wasn't always the easier one. Generally it was a more difficult one, and definitely the one less traveled. But it always was the right one, I always knew it was. So it was just one of those things where there'd be something really key where I was like, Oh, yeah, that's the next step.

So it's always a key moment, or a person or situation that made me think about the next step on my path and guided me.

For example, in high school the reason I became a chef at the end of school was because in year 9, I think I was 15 years old, there was an elective subject called Hospitality. We learned about the real side of the hospitality world and all that kind of stuff. And we had an amazing teacher who used to be a fine dining waitress, and her husband was still a fine dining chef. So she had a real passion for the industry, and the entire class ended up in hospitality, all of us: chefs, hospitality managers, front house managers. We all ended up doing great things in that space because she instilled such a passion in us that it wasn't just about the food, it wasn't about packets as you get in some places. It was about creating an experience. And you can really change people's view of food.

That made me go like, Oh I want to be a chef, you can really do something special with that. And it can always come back to you. You know being a chef is something that you don't really want to do necessarily later in life. I knew it was the right thing to do then. And I wanted to be a  fine dining chef. I always wanted to do the best in each thing that I did rather than settling for what's easy, or what's near enough. I’ve never been that kind of person. And then, when I was in my apprenticeship, our main teacher - from trade school here in Australia - won a small scholarship with the University of Gastronomic Sciences, to go over for a couple of months and do a bit of a sabbatical. There was a special award in Australia that he got as a chef and teacher not to do the masters, but just to go over and do some learning. And so he did a presentation and encouraged us  to go, and I think only a few of us went, of course, and I was like, Oh, wow! Yeah, this is the next step. This is making a difference. This is it, you know. I wanted to do cooking, but then I felt it's still not really making a true difference in the world. 

So then I had to get an early sign off from my apprenticeships. I applied and got in for the three year Bachelor degree. And then, obviously, when I was over there we launched the Youth Food Movement and we ran a workshop for the United Nations Commission for sustainable development, and there was just some amazing youth! I remember this one kid from Brazil, he was just so inspiring in coming all that way, and not really knowing what to expect, just to learn about how he can save his village’s culture and their food culture.

I had a moment when I looked at myself and thought all this is great that I'm a chef but, what am I really doing? And who are we, as Australians, to tell others how to manage their natural resources when we're not doing very well with ours?  That was a trigger to go, this is the message to go back home, learn about natural resources, and be that difference you want to see in the world. Because that's what my knowledge was doing that workshop, and I knew that none of the other students at the uni really got all those issues, whereas I grew up understanding that because of my dad's education.

So I came back to Australia at the end of the first year, and I'm like Oh, it's definitely the right thing to do, and one of the courses I did in my final year involved traveling around different national parks and meeting rangers and you know it was a really hard course: I had to travel for this whole month, just traveling the national parks. Ok, there was an actual exam with an assignment at the end :)
But this one ranger at Airlie Beach was an absolute legend, and I still hold true to that. I'm going to be talking to him during the trip. He was just so inspiring to the whole group and really planted that seed of you can be, you can make a big difference as a ranger, you can bring the community and the National Park staff together. Amazing outcomes, not just looking at the threatened species and protected areas, but really making it a whole community thing and having amazing outcomes for the whole areas, the whole region and long term. So that sort of planted the seed of “it’s kind of special to be a ranger” and I didn't really think much more of it. Until, when I was applying for a bunch of graduate programs at the end of my honours year, aka my thesis, there was one that popped up which was the graduate ranger program in South Australia, I’d never heard of that before but it sounded amazing.

I got in, and in my first week down there (South Australia) I got a call from one of the other grad programs in which I had gotten right down to the last few people who were interviewed, and one person just pipped me and this was with BHP. So the big money companies, people can make a big difference from inside them and they only offer one environmental graduate position in the whole country each year. And they called me back to offer that, they decided they didn't want the other person, and this is like an almost AU $90,000 job straight out of uni. It's not nothing. Plus these graduates are the executives of the future so it's not a small thing to turn down, but I instantly knew it was right to turn it down, and I did. I turned it down for the grad program which is one of the programs with no guaranteed job at the end. I knew this is the right one for me and I haven't looked back.

I just love being a ranger, the best job in the world.
So there were always those moments when people inspired me at the right time and then I chose to take the leap.
It wasn't a small thing in my group of friends, I was the only one who didn't do uni straight out of high school. I was like, oh, how can you not do it? I did defer. I had a bunch of university places I deferred from, but that was considered crazy. And their biggest argument was - what about your social life? Uhm wrong argument for me, sorry not sorry. Now, if you say I couldn't play sports again, that was actually the hardest bit about it, not being able to play hockey.

There was always something that inspired me at the right time, and it just needed the right amount of courage and boldness to go - no this is the right thing to do, and at the absolute worst at least I've worked at it, that's okay. No I don't want to do that but at least I tried. You don't want to have regrets, that’s the worst thing ever. I mean you can have regrets in the sense that of hurting people, but otherwise these are life decisions so no regrets at all because you've got to take the leap sometimes.

I mean going over to Italy: not knowing a single person over there, you know, being broke because as an apprentice we didn't earn anything. I put all my money into it. So I came back with no money at all after this one year, so I couldn't get a scholarship for that first year I was over there. You’ve got to take the leap, and even going down to South Australia for the grad program it’s the only state in Australia I didn't know a single person. Starting from Scratch.

And then even going to Central Australia as a ranger was a bit of a jump to work in the middle of nowhere. Living on park with the ranges that you're working with is like living with your colleagues, and there's no one else there. You have to be comfortable living into each other's pockets and that's again a bit of a leap. But I've always just known the right path, because it felt right for not just me, but for my part in the world, I suppose.

Why is it so important for you to be the change that you want to see?

I think you're a bit of a hypocrite if you’re not. Most people are really good at complaining about everything all the time and blaming others for current situations and not taking ownership of our spot in the world and how we impact others. I feel like I couldn't be comfortable and sleep at night, and be a happy person (happy as in “content”), if I didn't do my best to address the biggest issues we have in the world.

For me, I suppose, particularly being a Ranger in the natural world, sort of underpins everything. If we get that, we start to get better at that, then everything starts to improve: the flow on effects for health and welfare, and even for poverty as well, because we’d be able to provide better for everyone in the world if we just thought about it differently and were smart about how we use natural resources and everything. So it's all intrinsically linked.

And so many people have focused on humans that some of us have to care about the rest, and not just about the more obvious keystone species, as we call them the cute and fluffy. As much as I love elephants and do like koalas and all the cute ones, there's everything else. So you know someone has to care about the bigger picture stuff, so for me it's just a must.

As a kid growing up in Australia, when you’re asked what do you want to be when you grow up, it was always this open amazing potential and a belief you can be anything you want to be in this lucky country. Genuinely I'd always look to what was more obvious to me in society, which was, you know, police officers and firefighters and paramedics, and that kind of stuff, and I’d always love to do that but I also loved science too much. So I wanted to be a geologist or a palaeontologist or an archaeologist - Thanks Indiana Jones! -  I couldn't really choose from those 3. Yeah, you can blame Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones.

As a science geek I'm fascinated with the world around me and always wanted to make a difference. So those things were always set in the back of my mind.

That's why I struggled to understand people who don't really care about others and the impact of anything that they do. I always feel guilty about most things that I do that aren’t inherently great for others. And not to bring gender into it too much, but I feel as women we feel guilt about way more stuff and way more often than guys tend to. Or from what I've seen, that's such a big part of the female experience in the world. Though it’s kind of interesting in the National Parks’ space, it's probably one of the few places that I've seen so many guys have that same guilt, or feel that same responsibility towards others in the world where they get it.

That's interesting. it's as if they're more touched by Mother Nature…

Yeah, particularly those who work in operations in parks for a long time. It's not an easy job, in that you know you're constantly at odds with politicians and their decisions which can undermine the kinds of work you do, but you just find your people who understand the same things. They get that, even if the chips are down, even if it looks terrible, even if climate change undermines every single thing that we do, and wipes out half the species we are currently trying to save, it's still worth it. It's still worth it and there’s still hope and if nothing gives you hope, then nature certainly does! 

If you see the worst of humanity, nature's always there to go, it's okay, you're also part of us and we're still hanging in there. You know after death there’s always life. There's always renewal, always change. As Charles Darwin said, Nature's very law is change, and in that there's a certain comfort. 

If Danger Ranger is your alter ego, then who’s Amanda and who is Danger Ranger?

Danger Ranger, that started off a bit of a joke from the family - Thank you, mother! My mom wrote it on the post that was sent to me, which in Central Australia goes through the National Parks Office, because, of course, we live on Park. So the admin officer loved it, she's like, Oh it's another one for Amanda! And there’s Danger Ranger written in capital letters. I suppose they joined. Actually just Ranger Amanda is in some ways much more confident, certainly calmer at times, I think, and more controlled. Probably the same situations, where, for example, if I'm dealing with a stakeholder or a neighbour or a member of the public that's really pushing my buttons, being really rude or something like that, I'm much more able to control myself in the uniform. It's sort of like superman, you put the SuperGirl suit on, and there’s a certain expectation of behaviour. It's like putting a secret power on me like, No, It's okay I won't kill them, I will be tolerant of this and find a way through.

Whereas in normal life I’m probably less tolerant of fools but you don't have that luxury as a ranger, and you learn a lot as a person. You grow as a person, but definitely when Danger Ranger or just Ranger Amanda puts the uniform on, there's a pride and a confidence that comes with that because you know your purpose, you know what you're meant to be doing in this. 

I've been in uniform since school because in Australia we have uniforms all the way through school. Then I went to being a chef, there’s another uniform. I only had a short amount of time when I was in Italy that I did not wear any uniform.

There is a certain identity that does go with your uniform, and it's quite nice when you put it on because you know you mean business, you're at work and admittedly it doesn't always turn that off when you take the ranger uniform off from an approach to life in terms of still being conservation-minded. I find it very difficult to turn off work, because when you care so much about what you do it's difficult to draw those lines because you really are the job. 

The uniforms are very special. Everyone who works at National Parks is always very proud of the badge on his arm. And it's something that we also all swap around the world, like a currency where you want to collect lots of badges. It's something that says who you are, what you represent, and what you look after that's shared through generations of ranges, which is really special.
I mean you're wearing the same badge that was worn 40 years ago by people with the same intent, with the same mission. And when you realise there's people all around the world wearing a ranger uniform with a badge doing the same thing, it's then that you have an aha-moment like, Yeah it’s pretty special that someone in Kenya with a ranger uniform right now is doing amazing things for their park; and there's someone over in Argentina looking after their marine parks, checking if fishermen are doing the right thing; and there's a National Parks’ ranger in the U.S.A. doing a tour for kids in Yellowstone National Park.
Knowing we're one big family ultimately that's a pretty cool thing.

So rangers are like these modern day guardians of the Earth, and at the same time I don't really hear stories about them. It's sad because I’ve never realised until speaking to you know, what an important role you people play in the game of conservation and taking care of nature at large. We hear about biologists and researchers of all kinds, but not rangers. My idea or ranger was that of someone doing a pretty easy job just cleaning the parks.

Yes it’s not present. It's more sort of this classic stereotype, particularly out of North America and parts of Africa are the more obvious ones. But even then they don’t show you the person in the uniform. They show you an individual with a gun in a military-esque uniform dealing with poachers. They don't show you the human behind it.

Actually, one of the interesting things I found is the parallel between what we learned in the first year at the University of Gastronomic Sciences and what we do as a ranger bio-cultural diversity. A very important concept! 

As rangers, what we do is we look after the natural, cultural and historic heritage.  

That’s what we are guardians of, because you can't have one without the other: from nature comes culture. And so for particular areas we don't just look after those parks we're also responsible for heritage and cultural areas just like you have amazing buildings. All locations were important in things occurred such as the National Trust in the UK and there are historical and heritage places in the U.S.A. which are all managed by National Parks. So we manage both cultural and historic heritage as well as natural heritage which makes sense because they’re so intertwined.

It’s that same concept proven in another way where it's not just in the context of biology and sociology together, but it’s proven in operations on the ground in real life that can't be separate; they're always in the same government department, always working together, it's always the same agency that manages both natural spaces and cultural and historic heritage.

That's a really important thing that people don't realise.
It's most obvious where there's some of the earliest First Nations cultures and in Australia that's a really special thing for us, where we have the oldest ongoing living culture in the world who's been here for over 60,000 years.

Then you've got other parts of the world such as North America, where there's reserves and cultural heritage places that are protected that are really important to people on Country because that intrinsic link between people and place is really strong and really important and pretty cool, and almost intangible.

And that's something that as park rangers, and as cultural rangers that we have, can help people to appreciate and come to understand. That's really key for people appreciating, understanding, and respecting First Nations cultures.

Often you just don't get that until you're standing on Country, having stories shared with you about the Country, and it’s a feeling we get it's something that you can't connect the dots until you're there with someone in that culture allowing you in, so to speak, so that's a really important thing.

I think if more people had those experiences and could understand, more people would appreciate there is no separation between us and nature, there is no separation between us and the areas and wild places.

The great definition of wild as you spoke about in one of your GREEN WORLD In a Pod podcast episodes, with one of our other colleagues from University of Gastronomic Sciences, with the whole point of the essay was the wild is part of us. You're not separate from it even if you're in an air conditioned nice little house in the middle of New York, you're not separate from it, you are part of it. 

And until we start to appreciate that, we're always going to get it wrong. So that's where, as rangers, we play a really critical role in connecting everyone with wild places, with culture so they understand that we are all one and the same. It's a pretty important role, lots of responsibility.

Well, it seems like you don't run away from responsibilities.

I'm really good at procrastination, but not actually running away.

So tell me about this crazy project. Crazy as in I-love-it-so-much-and-is-the-most-awesome-thing-ever-and-I-cannot-wait-to-read-a-book-about-it !

It is a crazy idea, another one of those next things.

Essentially, when I came up with the original idea, it was meant to be just Australia, I wasn't completely insane to start with. Then it got bigger from there…

Back in like 2020, whilst driving back from my parents place I’d been following some great podcasts, including the Tough Girl Podcast - a really great one all women should listen to, it has fantastic women from all around the world doing amazing adventures, just doing wicked things. So I had all these ideas of adventure, and doing great things, and making a difference in the world, and raising money. And then I also really got into hiking when I was looking after the Larapinta Trail as a ranger in Central Australia, that's one of our longest and hardest trails.
I sort of put it all together (TADA’) and I wanted to do more for the Thin Green Line Foundation because I hadn't done much since I left South Australia where I was so closely linked with them and I used to volunteer at the Womadelaide festival, a Music & Arts Festival. And also just helped out with the ranger association committee, and we really made a big difference for the foundation and raised a lot of money. 

Plus I kind of missed doing something bigger than myself, and I'd finally sort of found my place here, with the team and the National Parks in New South Wales. I felt so appreciated and respected and just so wanted in my job, which is a very rare and special thing. They have such confidence in my abilities as a ranger that I didn't have that need to prove myself or I didn't have to be concerned about getting into another role, because I know it'll happen.

It was like there's a sense of peace, then in the sense of I should do more now, like I have this emotional and mental space to do something more: So let's do a ridiculous one year expedition to do crazy things.

I had the idea to travel around Australia and telling rangers’ stories given that covid made us look close to home. And then I spoke to our great representatives on the Council of Oceania Ranger Associations, also known as CORA. They got very excited and suggested I should go for the whole Oceania.
‘Cause that's not massive at all!

After that Skype meeting, as I was driving home I was like, Yeah, that actually makes sense, that works. That really does work because that'd be amazing since we are all island nations, and it'd be great to support the whole region. And why not? I mean it's almost impossible and completely insane, but why not?

So it became what is now known as Walking The Thin Green Line Oceania which is all about telling the stories of Oceania rangers: recording them, making a documentary at the end, raising awareness for ranges, and really initiating meaningful change. So that the public and others can get to know the rangers and what we do, but also rangers can meet some of their other colleagues and understand that there's an amazing network of professionals that we share in this region, and that we can all work together and network better.

I’m hoping that out of it we’ll have some great ideas and new connections across the regions. So that we're not relying on our Government departments to try and talk to each other, because that's never going to happen.

I'll be doing it on my own for one year. Starting on World Ranger Day July 31st this year, until July 31st next year to travel around Australia, New Zealand, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea. And I'll also be visiting the World Ranger Congress in Azores, in the Atlantic and going to the Oceania Ranger Forum which is in Rotorua, New Zealand.

I'll be traveling by vehicle to those but also walking the Thin Green Line for fallen ranges by literally hiking one kilometer for every ranger who's been killed in the line of duty since 2009, which is when we started officially recording them. Which by 2024 will be more than 1500 rangers killed in the line of duty. So it will be a big hike because 2 to 3 times every week there’s a ranger killed somewhere in the world.

People don't realise the danger of our jobs.  A lot that is of course from poachers and Illegal loggers but also the inherent dangers of our jobs: such as the dangerous animals that we look after and check, the remote locations we live in, and the other aspects of our job such as helping in emergencies, dealing with wildfires, using firearms, using dangerous chemicals. Driving alone is a very dangerous activity. So what we do is intrinsically very dangerous.

And that’s where the Thin Green Line Foundation comes in, so we'll be raising funds for the TGL Foundation but for a specific fund for Oceania because what even our own colleagues around the world don't realise about our region is that it's not just Australia and New Zealand but we also have very small island nations in our region who really need a lot of help. They are pretty much at the start of their journey in terms of protecting areas and having skilled and professional rangers to be able to operate those and manage those. Having the experienced New Zealand and Australian Rangers supporting them is really really important, because that peer to peer learning is the best way to provide training and a very meaningful and valuable way to support colleagues when it's a pretty tough job.

So the fund will support ranger to ranger opportunities, because those kinds of gatherings make a huge difference for rangers’ welfare, and for connecting and motivating rangers.

Giving others that opportunity, particularly those who live in remote locations is really special. So that's what the fund is for and it's probably important to get the next generation involved.

I'll be talking to schools on the way and we're holding a few Q and A sessions with rangers in some remote field trips. I'm hoping that from some really really remote and amazing locations we'll be able to live-chat with a few school groups, so they can meet a few of their ranger heroes - which would be fantastic!

Then it will culminate in a documentary at the end, where all the footage from the trip, as well as interviews with Sean Willmore and some of our ambassadors. Sean is one of the founders of the TGL foundation, and in 2024 it’ll be 20 years since he set off on his own journey around the world recording the stories of rangers on a camcorder - like old school. And that was the Thin Green Line Documentary, which then jump started the Foundation, which is the sole charity that supports ranges and their families around the world, providing training and equipment for rangers.

Have you ever found yourself threatened by poachers?

Not in Australia, not directly. I've been verbally threatened by people doing compliance work, definitely. I've been called all sorts of colourful things and had someone slap my vehicle. I have colleagues who've had guns put in their faces out of threat. But, generally speaking, we're relatively lucky here in Australia that that's less of an issue.

What’s increasingly becoming an issue in my area is the marijuana crops grown in my parks. So that's probably one of the biggest issues for us in terms of that immediate human threat, since you never know how people might react to any situation.

But on the other hand, and probably the biggest threat for us in Australia and Oceania is the natural environment itself. So the most recent ranger who lost his life was a marine ranger who was attacked by a shark whilst doing fish surveys. Working in the field, there’s snakes, sharks… Everyone knows a lot of things in Australia want to kill you.

That goes through to some extreme climate situations that you have in New Zealand. Not to mention the volcanoes, or the amazing braided rivers known for moving kilometers very quickly and if you're stuck in the middle of that to anywhere near it, you're in big trouble. So there's a lot of things that can impact a ranger.

(FYI braided rivers have multiple river channels and sometimes they'll jump one very suddenly because of a very high rainfall event obviously in New Zealand, and it's just the way flood profiles can work. It can shift very quickly and that's how a lot of visitors in natural areas come unstuck through rivers, because they'll be crossing a river and it's not raining where they are but it's raining somewhere else. So suddenly there's this torrent of water coming out of nowhere.)

Another thing is tick-borne illnesses, which is depressingly common.
Also, the equipment we use with wildfires is a basic one so we don't always have the best breathing protection when we're fighting wildfires. Being around smoke all the time can impact your lungs and there are colleagues who have permanent lung damage from being around smoke. 

So do you guys get the government's support?

I mean, you get the equipment that is considered appropriate for the tasks we do.
And there is obviously insurance in terms of work cover and that sort of thing.
But when you have life altering injuries and impacts, and in terms of the mental health side of things, I think the whole of society is really catching up with that and sort of the standard for-free-sessions over the phone is not really necessarily going cut it for a lot of people. Neither is, you know, a group session at the local Parks depot one afternoon.

There's a lack of knowledge that support can be done better, and t a lot of governments are not doing that very well for the general public let alone emergency services and first responders. I think one of the things that could help is getting politicians, their parties and governments to understand that for rangers and park staff, we are just as in need of mental health services and support, as your other first responders, such as police, paramedics, and firefighters, because we do all 3 of those things.

We are authorised offices like the police. We fight fires not in buildings perhaps, but in certainly very scary situations, and sometimes in remote areas. And we're often the first people on a scene when someone's injured, hurt, or lost in a national park.

Put that all together and also add to that how we now know what vets go mentally through in terms of having to euthanise animals if the animals suffer. Put a bunch of animal lovers in a ranger uniform: that’s who we are. And we have to euthanise injured animals and also deal with pest animals. I mean, even though it's a pest animal - meaning they're not meant to be part of our ecosystem, or where we work -  they're still an animal, and you're still killing them and that's impacting.
So you put all of that together and that's a pretty intense job that requires more support.

Wow! I do hope that your documentary and your project becomes really popular, as it gets in the house of many people and brings this greater awareness.

That's what I’d really love, for it to take off! I want to capture the minds and the hearts of people so you and others can follow along and learn a lot from it. Generate great awareness in the region of what the National Parks staff do. 

At the same time I'm like No, no, no, keep it small, I don't want anyone to know who I am, I don't want to get in front of the camera. 

It’s understandable, but you were at the United Nations so you’re just fierce like that and you’ll rock it!

I’d rather be on the filming side of it, not the other side but unfortunately, yes, the social media side of things is certainly not coming naturally. Let's just say that Oh, yeah, I should at some point start to take videos and photos of myself. But it’s coming…

I'll do that tomorrow, that'll be a task tomorrow.