Blake has dual qualifications: a bachelor’s degree in biodiversity and conservation from Macquarie University in Sydney and is also a licensed electrician. ‘I always wanted to be a wildlife biologist,’ Blake says. ‘I’m a huge outdoors person, but while I was doing my first year at Macquarie University, I was working behind the bar on night shifts doing 30 to 40 hours a week. I figured that I could finish my degree online with some block sessions and get my trade qualification while I was studying.’
He did his trade working with an energy company at the Liddell Power Station in the NSW Hunter Valley, which was decommissioned in 2023 after 52 years of operation. That gave Blake the opportunity to apply his dual electrical and conservation skills to the work of helping to repurpose the site to become the Hunter Energy Hub for industrial renewable energy.
With that experience under his belt, he jumped at the chance to fulfil his dream of becoming a wildlife biologist when the opportunity arose at Avisure. He moved from his small-town home in the Upper Hunter Valley to the Gold Coast and is ‘loving working’ there. ‘The team has so much experience, and I am learning heaps on the job – their mentorship is a huge part of what I am enjoying.’
‘I have always spent my spare time outdoors, and focused on marine wildlife and mammals, but never really looked into birds, so it has been really cool to learn new species, such as the rainbow bee eater, and lock down bird species ID.’
‘It’s fantastic to be able to observe a whole new variety of species, go onto all the different sites, and have the opportunity to observe what they’re doing in their natural habitat.’
‘I’ve been lucky enough to travel to central Queensland and Internationally for Avisure, so that was a great learning experience.’
However, it’s not only learning about bird species, because Blake says, probably the steepest learning curve has been on the aviation side of things. ‘Aviation has its own set of rules’, and the big yellow trucks on the mine sites he is used to dealing with are a world apart from large passenger aircraft landing nearby.
‘Understanding what clients need – what’s required, and making sure our reports and office work deliver what they need’ has also been an important part of learning the role, Blake says.
And when he’s not at work, Blake enjoys being outdoors more, and ju-jitsu, which some have described as physical chess, for the combination of physical and mental challenges it provides.
With a surname like Shackleton, the question had to be asked: is there any family connection with the famous Antarctic explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton? ‘My dad says we are,’ Blake says, ‘and a DNA test I did shows that we are from the same region, but we need to do some more research.’
You be the judge?
