Picture This
Dionne Walsh
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Environmental Management Systems officer, Centralian Land Management Association, Alice Springs, Northern Territory |
Dionne grew up in the bush and always loved camping and being outdoors. When she started her science degree she thought she wanted to be a geneticist. Thankfully Dionne realised that the white lab coat wasn’t for her and she ended up focussing on botany and zoology.
I have a PhD in agricultural and natural resource science even though I hadn’t ever really considered doing one. People from my little country town didn’t go to university much, let alone do post-graduate studies.
I’ve been trying to track down the locations of old photo scenes in central Australia to re-photograph them. All up I’ve re-photographed about 700 sites, and the changes in the country since the 1960s and 1970s have been really interesting. The fun thing about this project is playing detective – some of the sites are off the beaten track and I have to do a lot of bush-bashing to get to them. I must have blocked out all the flat tyres I’ve changed if I still consider this fun!
My ‘patch’ covers the pastoral stations in a 400km radius around Alice Springs. The things I love about the rangelands are no smog or rush hour traffic, beautiful scenery, friendly people, the fact that you can go places and be miles from anyone else, great camping, sunny winters, and the need to be self-reliant when you’re out in the bush on your own.
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Dionne Walsh on the Larapinta bike trail, with Mt Sonder behind her |
Once, as I was pulling into a homestead, a very glamorous woman (in heels, sexy dress and full makeup) rushed out of the front door, jumped in a fancy sports car and sped off. This was an unusual sight in itself. When the pastoralist came out, he was a bit shell-shocked and told me that I had just seen his shearing contractor leave. Apparently the contractor had had a sex change operation and was calling in to let the pastoralist know that he (she) wouldn’t be available for shearing this year.
One of my goals is to write a book on something related to natural resource management one day.
We asked Dionne about someone who has inspired her in her research and why:
Dr Bob Lange at the University of Adelaide was my inspiration for going into rangeland science. His enthusiasm for the subject and unwillingness to conform to the bureaucracy was appealing. I’ve also been inspired by many pastoralists I’ve met who are genuinely responsible environmental managers. These quiet achievers get out and do it (sometimes at great personal expense) whilst most urban people just talk about it.
Books or reading material Dionne recommends on her area of research:
Anything about outback exploration and survival (explorer’s diaries, pioneer history etc).
