Graduate Profile

Megan Burns
Regional Waterwatch Coordinator, East Gippsland

Bachelor of Science (Resource Management)

“The part of my job I enjoy the most is getting out of the office and talking to the community.”

In this position I manage the Waterwatch program for the East Gippsland region. I coordinate training and education activities for the community, oversee the school education program run by the Community Education Coordinator and manage the Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Network. I spend half my time at the office on numerous administration tasks and the remainder outside either visiting current and future volunteers or running training and information events for schools or the community. The part of my job I enjoy the most is getting out of the office and talking to the community. The course gave me a wide range of choices when it came to finding a job. My persistence and voluntary work also helped me further my choices. I obtained my first science job, as a laboratory technician soon after finishing my last exam for the degree. My first job in natural resource management was with the West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority (WGCMA) as a Flood Project Officer for six months.

I then spent a few months with Landcare before I headed overseas to South Africa and completed one month voluntary work with Cape Town Nature Conservation. On arriving back in Australia I started work with the WGCMA on their Regional Catchment Strategy and then on an action plan for the Traralgon Creek catchment which has finally led me to the position I hold today. My course helped me through all these positions, both in terms of the information I learned, and in gathering and presenting relevant material professionally.