Aaron Bamblett

[Aaron Bamblett]

My name's Aaron Bamblett. I’m a proud Gunditjmara man. My job role is [to] coordinate the farm up here for Winda-Mara.

I am Team Leader with the Budj Bim Rangers. So, I have a crew of eight, and a lot of that crew are younger mob.

So, we have over 200 head of Angus steers. They’re roughly 250-300 kilo, and then we take them right through to about 600-700 kilo, and then that's when we move them on, sell them to the market.

This morning, we went and mustered up all the herd, bringing them into the yards and we're just going to check them over for pink eye. When we buy in cattle, we always quarantine them for two weeks, just in case there's any biosecurity threats.

We drench them on site, as soon as they get on site as well just to protect our current herd.

But the main goal for up here, is that training component, that exposure to the agriculture side of it. We’re not heavily reliant on making profit.

So, a lot of mob come in with zero experience. Just teaching them work skills.

We do anything from fencing, weed spraying, tractor operations. Any of the mob can jump in tractors, ride quad bikes: there has to be that training component.

Up here it's very isolated, the safety is a big factor.

We also do, a major thing is the weed spraying up here. So, this place was very overrun with weeds, and it's a big component within the ranger crew that they learn about weeds and how to control them.

On this property we have over 400 hectares of blue gums and pine plantations. They should be ready in around 2050.

Here we have a wattleseed orchard. At the moment it’s just a trial site, so a lot of different species are planted, and then we'll develop systems to harvest the seed, and just see which one yields the best.

That's an investment for the future. Most training that's provided to the rangers is through South West TAFE.

Over the last three years, I enrolled in the course at RIST (Rural Industries Skill Training), so a Certificate IV in Agriculture. I studied that, I pushed hard through, and I ended up graduating that course last August, and there was an opportunity to get into the Diploma in Agriculture.

That's the path I wanted to go. For the Diploma, I’ve enrolled in a twelve month course. I really am knuckling down to get it done.

So, the training has really helped me just make more informed decisions. So when I go to my managers, you know what you're talking about and you can explain to them why decisions are made.

The Budj Bim Ranger program is based down on the Budj Bim lava flow, and around that area.

The main goal for us is cultural heritage protection. Going out into the landscape and protecting cultural heritage sites, and improving areas that were cleared for cattle grazing and stuff. So we have properties that we did have cattle on, and now that we're shifting that back to native veg.

So, I’ve always used previous jobs as, I’d say, steppingstones, and just finding the career that really suited me.

Ultimate goal, is one day I have my own farm. It's something that I really, really am passionate about.

[Aaron Bamblett]

My name's Aaron Bamblett. I’m a proud Gunditjmara man. I coordinate the farm up here for Winda-Mara.

We have about nine paddocks all up. We do anything from cattle management, tractor operations, grazing management, fencing, weed spraying.

So, before any of the mob can jump in the tractors, ride quad bikes, there has to be that training component, once that's ticked off then they can jump on the machines.

Most training that's provided to the rangers is through South West TAFE, and then they can come out and muster cattle and help out with those types of jobs.

So, a lot of mob come in with zero experience and then develop in their careers, so do a lot of training stuff and then they can either move up: up the ranks here, or move onto another job.

What I personally do up here, I manage the herd. So we have over 200 head of Angus steers, and every time we go out feed the cattle we just give a check over the herd: just make sure there's no lame cattle, or there's no illness within the herd.

So that's another part of the training: so learning biosecurity threats and animal welfare.

Coming into this role I didn't have any expectations really. It's developed into that career for me.

It's just become a passion to work in this space. You’re ticking off a lot of boxes within that native space, cultural space, and then you're bringing it back to the agriculture space.

[Aaron Bamblett]

My name's Aaron Bamblett. I’m a proud Gunditjmara man. I coordinate the farm up here for Winda-Mara.

Over the last three years, I enrolled in the course at RIST [Rural Industries Skill Training], so a Certificate IV in Agriculture. We learnt a lot about pasture management, weed spraying and then there was an opportunity to get into the Diploma in Agriculture.

That's the path I wanted to go. That really focuses right in on policy management.

Started really shaping how I manage this space up here, and just with decision making stuff that helps make those more informed decisions when you're out on farm.