About time to update!

Well, a lot has happened since my last post.

Bec and I are living in Brisbane in the lovely suburb of Sunnybank Hills. Next suburb next to us, Sunnybank, is Brisbane's 'Chinatown'. There is a complex only just down the road from us that has 43 restaurants!! Everything we ever need is at our fingertips; there are 3 huge shopping centres within 15 minutes drive, including a huge Westfields. Here is a pic of our house from the outside!

















Work for me at Griffith University is FANTASTIC! The project is so awesome! There is such an amazing and incredibly comprehensive data set of the distribution, abundance, behaviour and interactions of bird species throughout the greater Brisbane region in the 1990s and the 2000s!! My job is to pool all the data together and make sense of any changes over time as well as changes in developments of different types. It is a collaborative project with Brisbane City Council, Logan City Council, South-east Queensland Catchment Authority, James Cook University (Townsville) and Griffith University. Uni is just over 7km from my home, so commuting takes no time at all! I leave at 8.15am in the morning and am sitting in my office just after 8.30am!! I have undertaken some fieldwork for the project (really early morning surveys), although the field sites surround the university (in a 600ha patch of forest!), so no long commutes into the field like I am used to!!

Bec and I are getting married in just over two weeks time!! We are so excited!! Everything is ready and planned, and we can't wait to see everybody!! I surprised Bec two weeks ago by tentatively organising a honeymoon to the Whitsundays. We are now booked into Airlie Beach at a resort for 4 nights. Originally, we weren't going to go until next year, but I decided that it would be silly to com back from a wedding and straight back to work, so this little escape is JUST what we need!! Nothing stopping us on going on a honeymoon (version 2) again next year!! Bec is getting quite a bit of work, and the school she is working at (Runcorn Heights Primary School) is really impressed with her teaching skills (as they should be!), so financially, everything is going fine and dandy (especially given that we are both used to student-style living)!! I will post again shortly with wedding pics etc etc......... wow, I am about to be married......!!!!

At the age of 29, I finally have a fulltime job!

Well, I had the interview for the Griffith University postdoc fellow position on Thursday 12th June, and yesterday, Monday 16th June, I got a call to say the job was MINE!!

I am so bloody excited about it and can't wait to move to Brisbane and start! Bec and I are travelling to Brisbane tomorrow to look at 4 houses to rent in Sunnybank Hills, Sunnybank and Mansfield. They are pretty close to the university so it means that I can occasionally ride my bike to uni!! Although the cost of renting may be $10 - 20 more per week closer to the uni compared to suburbs further out, we will be saving on fuel driving vast distances getting anywhere! My wage (before tax and superannuation) is exactly 60k which is more than I thought I would be getting! I have now been to the University of Western Australia, Edith Cowan University, University of New England and now Griffith University: four universities in three states! Looks like I am continuing my 'professional student' career!!

I am really looking forward to the drive to Brisbane, having never driven north of Yamba (see earlier post from last year), so there will be many a photo and further details soon, so watch this space!

Bongil Bongil National Park

Following on from the last post, I thought I might post something a bit more intuitively positive. I recently decided to visit some of the nearby national parks and take a few walks and just relax and birdwatch. I went to Bongil Bongil National Park, an area of littoral rainforest just south of Coffs Harbour. Littoral rainforest refers to rainforest with a closed structure and composition which is strongly influenced by proximity to the ocean. And I can tell you, it is weird seeing rainforest within throwing distance of ocean! The bird species list was quite impressive and included rainforest restricted, coastal heath and oceanic species; over 30 in total. It included a 'lifer' for me: Russet-tailed Thrush (Zoothera heinei)...

I did the Bundagen Rainforest Walk (6km return) and the Palm Crossing walk, recording the species of birds seen as well as their abundances. I have now included this information into the online atlas database (Birdata).

I have decided just to show pics below.... experiences don't always need captions...

C'mon Griffith...

Life is sometimes hard, sometimes, it seems to fall into place. However, sometimes, it throws you curve balls.... Take the saga that I am experiencing at the moment regarding work. Yes, I am still jobless and living with my fiance and her parents. However, a job has come and gone in the intervening period between blogs...

In my last post, I expressed hope regarding a consultancy position that I was being interviewed for. Needless to say, the interview came and I was pleasantly surprised. The CEO of the company (James Warren) actually flew down to Coffs Harbour and then met me in Nambucca for the interview. He basically said that he wanted me for the position and that I would be in a senior/management position by the end of the year in the Brisbane office.... I was gracious in acceptance, but commented on my waiting on an academic position at Griffith Uni. He was happy to wait for the outcome of that, however, as universities are the quintessential bureaucracy, they have taken for ever to get back to me. In the meantime, I got a call last week (two weeks after the interview) from James to inform me that they were 'moving on' and looking at interviewing other people if I didn't accept... To say that I was depressed and disappointed is an understatement; I basically threw away a perfectly good, well-paying job on the hope that I will be shortlisted and hired for the university position... Such are the curve balls of life; dangling a carrot of gold when you dream of a carrot of platinum.

HOWEVER, today I got a call from Griffith University informing me that I have bee shortlisted for an interview for the position. So next Thursday, 12th June at 12.30pm, I have a phone interview from home with a selection panel from the university. FINALLY, after submitting the application in the second week of April, submissions closing on the 8th May, I now know that I have AT LEAST got to the interview stage. I am just hoping that the wait will be worth the reward of actually getting the position...

I will keep you informed....

An interview

Well, I got a call the other day from the director of an environmental consultant company in Brisbane that I applied to work with. He called and initially asked if I was aware that the job was in Brisbane rather than in Newee Creek where I am living now!! To cut a long story short, he is calling me in the next few days so that we can get together for an interview. I am happy to drive to Brisbane for a day or two, but he is happy to meet me down here.... hopefully that reflects his enthusiasm to employ me!! Am I excited? Yes, although I want to find out about the Griffith University job first as that is the ULTIMATE position. Either way, I will go to the interview for the consultant job, because that is still a fantastic job!! Oh, by the way, Rebecca graduated on the 11th April with Bachelor of Education (Primary), so YAY to her!! Here is a picture of her in all her 'academic regalia'!!

While waiting to find out about work, Rebecca and I are looking at places to live in Brisbane on the internet. We are attempting to gauge the good and bad areas of Brisbane, and looking for houses accordingly!! We are getting very excited about moving to Brisbane, and I believe that this is where we will settle for at least a few years!!

In news regarding our wedding, I have finalised my suit (and my groomsmen's suits) for the wedding and are currently looking for a wedding cake. I now also have my wedding ring.... very happy and PERFECTLY sized... On the subject of our wedding, for those invited (hehe), don't forget to PLEASE send your RSVP cards back ASAP... or else

Keep in touch everybody, and watch this space for more updates!! BYE!!!!

Looking for work

Since my last post, I have still been looking for work. That Geolink job I mentioned in the last post never eventuated; it appears that the deadline for applications was a week before they received mine. The employment website that I got the application off had the incorrect close date. Mind you, Geolink's OWN site was still advertising the position well over a week after the close date. I had a similar experience with another job working as a landscape ecologist with Greening Australia that I emailed to get a position description for, only to be told (even though the close date was still a week away on the Envirojobs website) that applications had closed!! This job was based in Hobart, Tasmania, so as you can guess, I am looking for positions outside of NSW.

The position I am putting all of my effort into now however, is the ultimate job for me: a postdoctoral fellowship in avian ecology!!! It is at Griffith University in Brisbane, and is a two-year full time position. It is the PERFECT position for me, as it would represent a stepping stone to a future lecturing position at university!! More importantly however, it is a really interesting subject for a postdoc:

A postdoctoral fellow is required to contribute to research into change in birds and their habitats in human-dominated landscapes over space and time. The appointee will play a key role in progressing an existing ARC Linkage project "Forecasting and Managing Biodiversity Change: Birds in an Urbanising Environment". The project aims to test whether current knowledge enables correct forecasts of longer-term trends in biodiversity within urbanising regions, by investigating the real-time change in bird assemblages between the early 1990s (pre-existing data) and late 2000s (current data), in south east Queensland. Other project aims include assessing the strength of both local and landscape-scale habitat change (including forest clearing, forest fragmentation, and different forms of urban development) in causing avifaunal change, and developing tools for forecasting future biodiversity scenarios under different land-use policies.

Pretty much RIGHT up my alley for those that know me. Applications close in the first week of May, although I hope to have it in by the end of this coming week, just to reduce the chances of previously experienced late comings!! I will let everybody know the outcome!!

Back home

After 7 weeks away, I am finally back in NSW. Although it has been all go, go, go since being back. Firstly, I was supposed to get back to Coffs Harbour on the Friday night (7th March), but given that the plane from Perth to Sydney was delayed for 2 hours (apparently the pilot's chair wasn't secured and was moving around!), I missed the connecting flight. As a result, I was put up in the Mecure Hotel for the night (including complimentary dinner and breakfast) before catching the first flight in the morning of the 8th March. It was probably a good thing arriving the next day however, as I was still suffering a hangover from my Thursday buck's night... mind you, I was still suffering it all day Saturday too!! My buck's night was awesome!!! It involved a round of golf in the morning (with Ryan as he was the only one able to come) at Wembley Golf Course. We hired a golf cart which was HEAPS of fun: a bit of work for the groundskeepers around the course after our little effort. All said and done however, it was one of my best rounds ever: 117 from the 18 holes!! The actual buck's night was awesome too: needless to say, there was 'entertainment' for the night which everyone enjoyed, although just hanging out with the Warwick High School boys (and Ryan) was the real joy; playing poker, laughing, talking and drinking (what obviously must have been) copious amounts of beer and bourbon!! Needless to say, waiting to catch the plane the next morning was one of the more uncomfortable experiences of my life: the hangover was a cracker (as Glynn, who was flying with me, could atest to).

Since being back, I have been doing everything from designing and preparing the weddnig invitations, driving to Port Macquarie to visit Bec's relatives, driving to Coffs for various items and looking for and applying for work. I have just sent off my resume to an Environmental Consultant company based in Coffs Harbour called GeoLINK. They are looking for an ecologist to join their team, so I jumped at the chance to apply for the job!! Hopefully I hear from them soon!!

I will keep everybody updated on how this goes!!!