Rebecca
Background
I grew up on a cattle property out of Manilla NSW, moved to Bathurst to study a BA in Communications - Public Relations and Organisational Communication then came to Canberra in pursuit of country living in a capital city.
My first real/9-5 job out of uni was working for a not for profit organisation called Nican. Apart from manning the phones and undertaking various coffee and cake runs (of which my addiction for canollies evolved), I also helped out with the event management of International Day of People with a Disability. After about 1 yr of general admin, event planning, event doing and event evaluating plus eating canollies I decided a change was needed.
In late 2005 I joined the then Australian Greenhouse Office in DEWHA, working under the car park in REED's Greenhouse Challenge Plus team. This was a membership based, government initiative that worked with industry to help them reduce their emissions. I was part of Challenge for a round about 2 1/2 yrs working on communications/marketing and event management and adding to my list of addictions with Cafenvi muffins and fundraiser chocolates.
Having been in the work force for just under 4 years I decided it was time to broaden my life experiences and took 6 months leave to travel.
After seeing the world I came back to Canberra and figured the next best thing to travelling would be to explore the world of DEWHA. The grad program seemed like a perfect way to add skills to my tool box, meet new people and test the waters of different divisions in a short period of time.
Placements
First Placement
Working in the Communications section of the Water Policy Branch, my main tasks evolved around helping implement the Water Group's Murray Darling Basin stakeholder engagement strategy. Day to day work included:
- Participating in regular meetings
- Updating the Water Group's intranet pages
- Devloping and maintaining background information packs on MDB regions
- Regular consultation with regional contacts
I also assisted with general section work; writing ministerial correspondence, briefs and talking points.
Second Placement
Working in the Marine Division I assisted with the implementation of the Beale Review and the development of new environment policy within a whole-of-government framework. This involved liaising across DEWHA and the Government, preparing briefings for the Senior Executive and the Minister, organising meetings, researching and reporting on related topics, analysing policies and engaging with external stakeholders.
This rotation was a great opportunity to participate in a major whole-of-government policy reform agenda, which could significantly change the way the Government manages Biosecurity risks to Australia's biodiversity.
Third Placement
Stepping outside of the environment arena, my third rotation was spent in the Arts and Culture division working in the Indigenous Culture and Content section. My main area of work evolved around Breakthrough: Emerging Indigenous Contemporary Indigenous Musicians Recording initiative. Breakthrough is a funding program that provides three emerging Indigenous musicians $25,000 to produce a high quality recording of a CD, suitable for broadcasting and commercial release.
This rotation was very much program based with my days spent assisting in the development of the Breakthrough documentation and marketing material.
Having just got my teeth into the aspects of the Breakthrough program I was lucky enough to be offered a position to stay on board following the finalisation of the grad program.
'the best thing about working for us ... is the environment'