South Australia - dare to dream

I wanted to write a short post about what I could be doing in just a couple of months time. If I am successful as Wildlife Caretaker I will be living and working for 6 months in the beautiful South Australia, mostly based on Kangaroo Island. Here you can come face to face iconic Australian landscapes and some of Australia's best wildlife, including thousands of kangaroo (as the name suggests), koalas, possums, echidnas and platypus. Not to mention the amazing marine life. Regarded as a "zoo without fences" 30% of the island is protected as parks with 541 kilometres of coastline.

Some of my duties would be assisting with guided tours, promoting the understanding of South Australia's natural environment, assistance in education programs, wildlife management and general conservation projects. I would also work with Park Rangers and researchers to learn about the animals and their habitat - whilst documenting their efforts and sharing them with the world.

"South Australia is home to long summers, stunning beaches and award-winning wine, events and festivals. It’s the gateway to the unique National Landscapes of the Flinders Ranges and iconic Kangaroo Island."

www.southaustralia.com

 

The job would take me right across the state of South Australia, covering the coastline of Kangaroo Island, the heart of Adelaide City and the Australian outback. There will be the opportunity to explore regions such as the Eyre Peninsula and the Flinders Ranges. With stunning outback landscapes and coastal waters the Eyre Peninsula is home to playful sea lions, bottle nose dolphins and southern right whales. Here you can cage dive with great white sharks, something the Wildlife Caretaker would be required to do, and an experience top of my bucket list! Then there's the spectacular gorges, towering rock walls and aboriginal culture to be explored in the Flinders Range, with one of the most recognised National Landscape in Australia.

So when could this all happen?
The 2 week campaign ends tomorrow (Wednesday) morning at 9am (In the UK), everything needs to be submitted by this time including a report on my media campaign, my 'referees challenge' and any further reasons why I think I am the best person for the job. Then the 18 finalists (3 per job) are announced on Wednesday 15th May via www.australia.com/bestjobs. Those finalists are flown to Australia for an 'interview week' some time in June and the six winners announced on Friday 21st June.

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Abseil down the Spinnaker

It was one of the earliest Sunday mornings I'd had in a while, not because of nerves or anxiety like you'd expect, but because I wanted to make sure my Go! Rhino video and 'Blog the week' posts were uploaded at the start of the day. I also needed to shoot a couple more referee videos today before or after the stunt, so I prepped for those. In all of the excitement of the press activity, I hadn't even had a chance to consider the abseil and how I felt about it, truth is I'm not too concerned about heights and I've abseiled once before, so my focus is more on making sure the Go Pro sound is clear and everyone is in place to get the best angle!

Spinnaker in the distance

To allow plenty of time I left 2 hours to get from Eastleigh to Gunwarf Quays,  a journey that usually takes 40 minutes max. And I still arrived late, it was a stressful start. Everyone who was meeting me there was hitting traffic, I was turned away from the main car park as it was full and directed to another one I've never been to before, a good 10 minutes walk from Spinnaker! Not great preparation when I need to plan the shots and learn my script - I'm planning to narrate the abseil and tell the camera why I'm the best person for the Best Jobs Wildlife Caretaker position.


The view over Portsmouth Harbour

I found my friends and family and dumped my equipent, banner and flyers and passed on my camera and lens, good news was Mike Foyle the photographer has arrived on time. I met with Nicole from Naomi House, Super Woman and Banana Woman and we were rushed to the top of the tower, 15 minutes later than planned.


Don't look down! The view from the
glass floor at 100 metres

The view from the top of the Spinnaker Tower is nothing short of spectacular, at 170 metres tall its taller than the London Eye, Blackpool Tower and Big Ben, and the glass floor at over 100 metres high is not for the feint-hearted! There are 360 panoramic views over the Portsmouth Harbour, The Solent and The Isle of Wight.

Mike Foyle Photography

But no time to admire the views, we're rushed into our abseiling gear and taken to the launch site, with just a simple question of "have you done this before?" I can't help but feel underprepared for this, even if I have abseiled before it was nowhere near as high, and I've just noticed the crowds of people enjoying a pub lunch and a pint on a summers day at Gunwarf, not to mention my family and friends. No pressure then! I managed to switch my focus to the camera angle and what I was going to say as I went down.

Abseiling from that height makes you feel so free, it was a big adrenaline rush and I strongly suggest taking a few moments to admire the view. I was lucky to have such a beautiful day and clear blue skies. I didn't manage to remember my whole script for why I should be Wildlife Caretaker, but did enough that I hopefully explained a some of my key skills and demonstrated I can perform under pressure. My personal highlight was hearing the applause as I got around three quarters of the way down. At the bottom it was nice to be congratulated by my friends and family, who had successfully given out some of the flyers but completely forgot about my 6 foot banner! Still considering the start it all went well and sponsors are coming in fast for Naomi House, time for a quick photoshoot with Mike and a relaxing pint! Not a schooner Australia :)

Please help me raise money for Naomi House, a truly fantastic charity by donating on my justgiving page, even if very small every pound can help them care for children and young adults with life limiting disabilities.

www.justgiving.com/scottTisson

On the way home I squeeze in a flying visit to a 50th birthday party (happy birthday Innes!) - I became that guy who turns up late, eats the food and leaves! And also two more referee videos for the challenge, before an evening of editing, blogging and a couple more coldie's. Two days to go!

More abseil photos on my facebook page

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Blog the week

I've reached the end of an incredible week. It started frantically try to play catch up with the media campaign, and a 3 day exhibition for work meant I couldn't start to make in-roads until Sunday, when I drew up an plan and called upon everyone and anyone I knew remotely related to the media. I had some help with Media Training with Lee Peck Group and by Tuesday my social media pages were up and running I was ready to take on the press, or so I thought.



Watch on Youtube

For those of you that don't know, I made it to the last 25 for one of the 'Best Jobs in the world', an initiative by Tourism Australia, they advertised six dream jobs one in each state from Lifestyle Photographer in Melbourne to Outback Adventurer in Northern Territory. There were approximately 600,000 entries and 45,000 took the next step of submitting a 30 second video explaining why they should get the job, please take a look at my application video.

It was a huge challenge to squeeze in my life achievements, best qualities and key skills into 30 seconds, whilst showing some personality and a sense of adventure, but I'm assuming they saw something they liked! I submitted the video and didn't think anything of it, I remember when Ben Southall won it in 2009 there were over 60,000 video entries, so it felt like a long shot. When I found out I was equally shocked and excited, but I tried to keep my feet on the ground, I was also away at a work conference where you barely get time to breath let alone kick off press activity, nonetheless once things got started they really snowballed...

Out of my depth

So after getting back late Saturday last weekend, Sunday was spent planning, emailing and begging for help, support and contacts, and creating social media pages. Monday was a long working day but I found time to crack on with Press Releases with a little media training. As Tuesday developed certain online stories popped up in UK Local, Opodo and IPR and I started to hear back from a few sources, including having a list to chase up. It appeared there may be some interest in me and the Daily Echo suggested something may go in tomorrow's (Wednesday) paper, result. Although I am a little worried about the paper getting passed around my head office, as so far I'd managed to keep this quiet amongst my colleagues as I didn't think it looked great to brag about being shortlisted for a job in Australia - especially as it has just been announced I was in line for a new role!

With Kirstie & Reggie at Marwell Wildlife

Like I mentioned in my last blog I was front page in the Daily Echo and had a crazy day on the Isle of Wight, I reported on two great campaigns please check out the Isle of Wight youtube video (apologies for the poor sound my microphone broke!). Thursday I had annual leave which gave me a chance to spend the whole day at Marwell Wildlife near Winchester to learn about and support the Go! Rhinos campaign, something I first heard about through work as we sponsored a Rhino. I was really keen to involve myself in such a ambitious project for a great cause. Go! Rhinos is a public art event in Southampton, from 13th July to 22nd September a herd of Rhinos will take over the streets and parks of the city. Each Rhino has been sponsored by a local business and is painted by a local artist, and at the end of the campaign they will be auctioned off so we all have a chance to own our very own Rhino! Visit the workshop in the Marlands Shopping Centre, Southampton to see the artists in action.

Please watch my Go! Rhino's youtube report

After a long day at Marwell I also had an interview with Wave105 to be played on Saturday, listen to the full interview. I think I'm a natural now after all this radio work! Back to work on Friday where I found out the office have been handing round my front page news so the cats out of the bag, I think everyone has been understanding and showed support, well maybe not everyone. Friday night gave me a chance to edit and upload my Isle of Wight video, and despite the sound problems I am quite pleased with it.

Finally on Saturday (today at the time of writing this) I concluded my Go! Rhino story at the Marlands with help from Luke and filmed referee number two ready to be added to my 'Referee Challenge' video - the second task set by Tourism Australia. A few rendering problems on Saturday night meant hours editing the Go! Rhino report but I hope you'll agree it was worth it. Much better sound quality than before. Here's another link to the video!

So all in all its been a busy, exhausting and yet thoroughly enjoyable week, and tomorrow is set to be the toughest yet. I'm recording the 3rd referee in the morning, and my abseil down the Spinnaker Tower is booked for 2:30pm, I've invited the local press, and due to my networking skills I have my own photographer coming along, thanks Mike Foyle. Please check out his excellent blog. If you'd like to sponsor my abseil I am raising money for Naomi House, you can donate online.

 

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The Isle of Wight challenge!

I woke up this morning and it was a warm beautiful sunny day, I knew it was going to be a very long and tiring day but I was really optimistic that things would start to happen for my campaign... I had three meetings planned on the Island and an 11am ferry. I started the morning with some actual work (yes I do have a job too) followed by checking the usual social media sites and I'm starting to see a pattern about my Daily Echo story making headlines!!
 
Front page news

At 10:30 I hear the news that I'm on the FRONT PAGE! On a Southampton based newspaper that goes to approximately 80,000 readers. Including my colleagues, who I was hoping to keep in the dark about the whole campaign - optimistic I know... Oh **** I get panicked and paranoid before telling myself I've done nothing wrong, and a re-assuring text from J.A. helps a lot, so I head to the local newsagent and buy 3 copies and decide telling everyone in the shop who I am is a good idea. They were mildly impressed, but no autographs.
 
See the photo left but note I am NOT the "BANNED DRIVER IN RIDE OF TERROR!"
 
Click here for full story in the Daily Echo
Click here for my facebook page more photos of the paper. Please like and share my page if you haven't already!!

 

So a great start to the day, and I am video blogging my the trip with time-lapse shots to the ferry, on the ferry, pulling away from Southampton, arriving in East Cowes, etc etc. I just make the ferry departure with a few minutes to spare and a quick chat with my PR lady, who feels like an unpaid agent (Thanks to Alyson and Innes) please see their websites below. I also squeeze in a quick photo with Bath school trip as we think this could run in the local paper in Bath as Al has contacts there - plus one of the UK based campaigners is from there so it would be great to get press on his 'patch'! 

 

Time to make some more calls as I've got numbers scribbled on my arm for the Monkey & Owl Haven, the Spinnaker Tower, IOW Radio and a postcode for Northwood House in West Cowes where I am meeting Ian Boyd - Head of Environment for Natural Enterprises. That gets keyed into the Sat Nav and off I go.

 

 
A country park for the community

Ian told me about a new development near Newport for the community to use and preserve and the work they are doing to preserve and build a natural habitat for the hazel door mouse, a European protected species. It was an inspiring interview and I took time to check out the park and new housing development from Barratt homes next door and shoot some footage which will hopefully edit well with the interview.
 
To find out more about Natural Enterprise please click here or visit their Twitter feed

 My next meeting was work related and on the way I found out my plans to abseil down the Spinnaker Tower this weekend for my campaign has been scuppered because its fully booked, and dispite Alyson's best attempts to chat to the PR lady it can't be done. I really want to do a big publicity stunt this weekend as a final push for the campaign. Still, I find out who is organising the booked abseils and leave a message with Naomi House to see if I can get involved with their charity at the weekend. Its a great cause so I leave a message and hope for a call back.

 
Martin & Lulu

After my official work business in Ryde (which I am not going to blog about) I head to the Owl and Monkey Haven near Newport, and the time of day means I am using my own personal time for these interviews (note to employers!). I didn't manage to speak to anyone about an interview here as the right person was never available so I just rocked up and asked for some time and got introduced to Don Walser, who started the Monkey and Owl Haven with his son and adopts animals from Kookaburras to Gibbons. It took 6 years to build! Don gave me a fantastic insite to why the park is so important and what campaigns he has currently to save Owl and Monkeys across the world but I was particularly interested in the Martin and Lulu appeal as I first came across this in August 2012 on my second visit to the park, a campaign to find Martin, a white-throated capuchin, a mate since he lost he brother and became distressed. At that time Lulu, who has been pushed out of her group in France, was in Quarentine for 6 months while their new enclosure was built, and then Lulu was introducted to Martin. It was amazing to see Martin & Lulu together happily, Don even announced Lulu is pregnant which no one else knew - you heard it here first folks!!

Abseiling down the Spinnaker Tower!

Finally I catch the ferry home and have well earned pint (Foster's - not my usual but let keep it Aussie!) and 10 minutes rest, its not long before I'm checking emails, facebook likes, twitter mentions and youtube hits again. And time for a phone call and some very good news, the lovely Nicole at Naomi House has squeezed me in to an abseiling slot on Sunday at 2pm! This is amazing news, I was over the moon I really think this will end my campaign with a bang. 

Straight off the ferry and I head to Heart Radio to pre-record an interview for a news bulletin for tomorrow mornings network news! Yes Network news is big, on Capital radio and all I believe. That didn't take too long and I ask to be tweeted by some of their DJ's, I'm not sure if that will happen but this is all good coverage.

So just time for a quick update on the campaign with my PR managers, and they even refuel me with a bacon sandwich. What a day.

Please check back soon to see the full video interview

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