Age: 41

Profession: Planning and Environmental Manager

Rob is a proud family man who lives regionally with his partner, teenage son, and baby girl. He cherishes his role as a father and places critical value on raising his family with an appreciation and understating of Country through lived exposure and experience—fishing, camping and hunting as a family as often as possible.

In addition to his work as a Planning and Environmental officer, Rob guest lectures at universities on Indigenous knowledge systems from around the world. He is a proud First Nations man and has worked with Indigenous communities in Australia for 20 years on conservation land management.

Rob will never describe himself as a survival expert—he remains humble about his abilities and recognizes there is always so much more to learn. With Indigenous knowledge systems being experiential, and heavily shaping Rob’s education, he strongly subscribes to the proven practice of teaching and learning being an immersive communal effort in attaining the knowledge and skills required to thrive on Country.

“Depending on whose Country I’m on will determine how well I survive. There will be places in Australia that I’m more comfortable with than others in terms of knowing what to look for and how to thrive.”