While The King’s Trust Australia’s Get Into Reef Conservation Programme is indeed tailored to reef conservation and land management, it provides so much more. The programme aims to equip young First Nations Peoples with the skills and confidence to find employment in any industry!
The programme honours First Nations stewardship and exposes participants to a mixture of traditional and modern reef conservation techniques, all while connecting them with Traditional Owners, reef conservationists, and scientists. The participants learn hard skills needed for conserving Sea Country, including reef surveys, coral propagation, and diving, all onsite at the Great Barrier Reef. Additionally, the programme helps build soft skills such as communication, collaboration, and critical thinking; prowess that is essential to any career.
We’re delighted to share some updates about our most recent cohort below:
- Grace is employed full time as a Coral BioBank Aquarist with Dawul Wuru.
- Joy and Jamahli work on a Crown-of-Thorns Starfish (COTS) control boat and are employed by Inloc.
- Lexi is employed full time at The Reef Cooperative (Citizens of the Reef).
- Locky and Bray are working in land management as a part of Mangrove Solutions.
- Jaylen works as a part of Road Traffic Control.
- David is preparing to start work as a diver in a lobster fishery off the coast of Cooktown.
- Latrell is working as a Cultural Dancer in Kuranda, in addition to his work as a landscape gardener.
Congratulations to all Get Into Reef Conservation graduates– the future of our planet is in very capable hands!
