This year, to celebrate World Ranger Day, Parks Victoria is celebrating and highlighting some of our amazing frontline staff.

Read on to learn about Brandon Lippiatt, who made a career change from carpenter to Ranger. 

What’s your name, and where are you based? 

Brandon, I am based at Brimbank Park Keilor Plains South. But I also have a fire role based at Woodlands Historic Park.

How long have you worked for Parks Victoria, and how long have you been a Ranger? 

In total I’ve worked for Parks Victoria for 2 and a half years. I spent 12 months at Albert Park as a Field Services Ranger in the Horticultural team, 18 months at Brimbank Park as a Land Management Officer and my current role as a ranger.

Brandon (far left) with three members of the Parks of Albert Park volunteering group, standing in front of their newly built garden shed. Credit: Parks Victoria.

What made you want to become a ranger?

As a kid I loved being outdoors. Whether it was sport, adventuring in my local creeks or riding my bike around town, you would more than likely find me out in our natural environment. 

I finished school not knowing what to do with my life and went into a trade. I began my working career as a carpenter where I picked up a skillset that has been extremely valuable. My trade gave me problem solving skills, creativeness, a desire to learn as well as being overall handy when it came to building and general maintenance. I didn’t know it yet, but I had an interest in our native flora and fauna, our parks and reserves and the feeling of adventure. Most days I would arrive home from a long day on the tools to find myself grabbing Red (my kelpie) and taking him on a journey out in nature. 

Often, I would explore my local parks and walking trails at home, then grew into adventuring Lerderderg State Park and Macedon Regional Park regularly. Occasionally I’d come across Parks Victoria rangers and think to myself how lucky they were to work out in the bush every day.

I’d spent a decade in the construction industry and was eager to close that chapter and find an area of interest that would get me out of bed full of passion and drive. During 2020 and 2021, I completed a Diploma in Conservation and Land Management at RMIT. I was studying fulltime but pushed myself to gain field experience on my days off. I volunteered at the Toolern Vale Dingo Discovery Centre, joined a couple of our Parks Victoria “Friends of” groups, worked in Natural Resource Management crews and joined online webinars to further knowledge in environmental conservation and land management. 

I stumbled upon a short-term contract opportunity as a Land Management Officer at Brimbank Park through the COVID period. This opportunity introduced me to the ranger role, which quickly become the job I wanted to successfully achieve at the end of my Diploma. I loved working close with the community, undertaking environmental field work and utilising my trade skills on park asset management. 

I would arrive home happy and content with the work I had delivered knowing I positively contributed to publicly accessed land enjoyed by many. Shortly after finishing my Diploma, I started at Albert Park as a Field Service Ranger.

Brandon putting his carpentry skills to the work with community projects. Credit: Parks Victoria

What are three things you love about being a ranger?

1. Working with and in the local community, having the opportunity to work alongside the “Friends” groups, and being a part of someone’s day – whether they are stopping me for a general chat, to report something in the park, or enjoying the open space that we manage. Spreading awareness and completing important environment work takes so much more than just the PV staff. Our community members and volunteers play a huge role in enabling opportunities for all Victorians to connect to nature.
2. Variety! A ranger position comes with a variety of projects and responsibilities. I love coming to work with the opportunity to focus my efforts in different areas of importance. I could be working alongside corporate volunteers in a working bee, mapping out invasive species in our park and reserves to deliver environmental projects, or in the field completing grounds maintenance in our open spaces and assets.
3. Caring for country by protecting cultural heritage and our native flora and fauna. Field work is incredibly important to maintain and progress our parks and reserves. While the state of some areas can be heavily overwhelming, all it takes is some motivation and a vision to make a difference to a natural landscape. Operations is one of my strengths due to my trade background, but as I work on progressing in other areas of my role, I love getting out into the field to utilise my operations strengths to make an impact on field maintenance.

What’s it really like to be a ranger? Walk us through a typical day

A typical day is not so typical – every day is different depending on the week’s priorities.

I start my day by arriving at the park before most visitors arrive, getting out into the park and completing a patrol of our visitor nodes making sure our park is open, safe, clean and accessible. Then it can vary from meeting contractors on site, working on asset maintenance, or reactive field work. Reactive field work could mean working as a team to trim and crosscut a fallen tree over a track or undertaking a ‘weed walk’ to remove invasive plants within the park.

We educate the public on compliance while getting around and do our best to respond to reactive complaints that come through the info centre. I work closely with community groups that complete important work in our park by managing their activities and creating tasks for other groups that attend on a regular basis.

I’m involved in environmental delivery projects that work with our critically endangered grasslands, removing pest flora and fauna species through internal and contractor management. I also have a fire role where I’m based out of Woodlands. This enables me to be part of a team that delivers planned burns and bushfire response. This role means that I may be stood up on standby for a Total Fire Ban or need to respond to wildfire.

What's your favourite memory made in a national park/part of your time at PV?

It’s hard to pick one individual memory as I am always adding new experiences. I get out in my old Troopy as a regular camper and off-roader and really enjoy exploring the Victorian high country in the Alpine National Park. Walking the trails to Mount Dunn at Mount Buffalo recently was a new highlight, an area I definitely want to get back to as soon as I can!

My time at PV is still very young, although heading off on a fire deployment with our agency friends at Forest Fire Management was a great experience that has stayed with me. Being able to defend communities doing it tough with a great group of supportive and encouraging people was a memorable experience that I’m looking forward to continuing as I grow in my career as a ranger and general firefighter.

Brandon (centre right) and the firefighting team deployed to the Grampians fires. Credit: Parks Victoria.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

Of all things, an architect – I enjoyed drawing and being creative, but I didn’t really know what was involved to get there or what an architect even did! I had no knowledge of the environmental industry when I was young but have distant memories of visiting Woodlands Historic Park and Greenvale Reservoir as a child and many days exploring my local creeks, which may have subconsciously led me to this career choice.

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not on the job?

Many of the people around me would say I have an old soul, I enjoy working in my gardens and having the best lawn in the street! Enjoying a coffee, spending quality time with my wife and our 2 rescue kelpies, always allowing time for trail walks and camping trips in our 30-year-old Landcruiser.

What’s your favourite nature fun fact? 

My favourite nature fun fact is one that your everyday person might get the chance to experience – the Australian Magpies can mimic over 35 different birds, animals and even human speech!

What’s a piece of advice you’d have for someone wanting to become a ranger?

Get out there and gain real experience. Working on your surface knowledge within the environmental industry is a great start, but the role requires you to work on a variety of different projects that differ depending on park locations.

Research what your preferred area manages and how you could contribute to the teams’ goals. Look at studying a certificate or diploma in Conservation and Land Management, become a volunteer at your local parks or gain field experience in natural resource management. Getting out there and working with your community will give you a great foundation to become a ranger at Parks Victoria.

World Ranger Day

Founded by the International Ranger Federation in 2007, World Ranger Day is internationally celebrated on 31 July. It's a day to celebrate the great work Rangers do and commemorates Rangers who are injured or killed in the line of duty.

Our rangers come from all walks of life, and their work is as diverse as the environments they manage.

We’re proud of the work they do every day – partnering with Traditional Owners and local communities to care for iconic landscapes and make sure all Victorians can enjoy the outdoors.

For more information on World Ranger Day, visit the International Ranger Federation’s website.