Outdoor Leader Position

Looking for Outdoor Leaders for 2023!

Position Description

Title: Outdoor Leader

Advertiser: Wollangarra Outdoor Education Centre

Location: Licola, Gippsland, Victoria

Position Length: ASAP 2023 – January 2024

Date published: 2nd Feb 2023          Closing date: 1st April 2023

Rewild your soul, become the Wollangarra team 2023. Live on the off-grid Wollangarra homestead delivering unique and deeply engaging outdoor education to young people. You will gain qualifications and experience in group leading, homesteading and bushcraft to name a few. Wollangarra has been using less to deliver more to connect young people to themselves, their communities and environment since 1989. In 2023, Wollangarra offers you the opportunity to take young people into genuine adventure. We are seeking mature, skilled and committed individuals willing to role-model the Wollangarra ethos as a tool to help foster connection to community, self and nature.

What is Wollangarra?

Wollangarra is an independent, non-for-profit organization situated beside the Macalister River south of Licola, Victoria. A simple, yet powerful outdoor education experience provides the platform for Wollangarra to provide a realistic look at sustainability, self-sufficiency and environmental issues in a positive, friendly community. We believe that our way of life and the empowerment given to the young people on our programs results in a truly new outlook on life, with many of them returning for further programs.

Read more: http://wollangarra.org.au/about/

The Role

As an Outdoor Leader on the staff team at Wollangarra, you’re an essential part of a small community based at a truly unique outdoor and environmental education centre. You will be a part of running small outdoor programs, organizing community events and help maintain the property.

Each week a new group of young people will come across our flying fox and get to experience a way of life that has largely been forgotten. They leave behind their mobile phones, watches and timetables. They bake bread, split wood, tend the veggie garden, collect the eggs and feed the sheep. Young people are given opportunities to make decisions, and are encouraged to positively contribute and feel like a valued member of the community. They hike, camp out, cook over open fires (where allowed), and partake in endless discussion about life, environment and the impacts society has on these things.

The position requires that you reside on the Wollangarra property and work a six-day week. You will live and work with four other staff members, two Directors and their 3-year-old son Meri and 1-year-old son South. Wollangarra becomes your workplace, home and family for the year. This brings lots of laughter, fun, adventure and, inevitably, a tear or two. The role is highly physical. Your time at Wollangarra will offer a challenging, but immensely rewarding experience.

Duties 

  • Lead Wollangarra’s programs for young people aged 14-17
  • Carrying out property tasks including gardening, wood chopping, animal care, maintenance, catering and cleaning
  • Work independently and in a group to maintain your designated job areas on a daily basis and when on a ‘flat week’ working on the property (such as livestock, veggie garden, pumps, vehicles, chemicals, food ordering etc.)
  • Foster an awareness of self, community and sustainability in young people
  • Encourage participation in conservation through outdoor education
  • Ensure high standards of safety for young people and visitors

Mandatory Requirements 

  • Current full manual driver’s license 
  • Current Victorian Working with Children Check (can be obtained once accepted for the position)
  • Current Victorian Police Check Certificate

Desirable Qualifications 

  • Qualifications in outdoor education, outdoor recreation, the environmental sciences or education.
  • Wilderness First Aid certificate 
  • Training in four-wheel drive or chainsaw use.

Selection Criteria

  • Personal outdoor experience – hiking, camping, cooking, knowledge of outdoor gear.
  • Demonstrated experience in leading, teaching, and/or working with young people.
  • Ability to complete tasks on time with minimal supervision
  • Ability to work well in a team and ask for assistance – many hands make light work
  • ●      An understanding of Wollangarra’s philosophy – recommended reading – “Secondhand and Solid” by Ian Stapleton.
  • Desire to live and work in a small, remote location, without electricity, internet or mobile service.
  • Practical skills in property maintenance, such as maintaining fences, vehicles, general fixing of things. (Wheelbarrows, axe handles, etc.)
  • Experience or desire to learn about the care of livestock – ducks, chickens, sheep.
  • Experience in running a large productive garden or willingness to learn
  • Experience in driving heavy vehicles on tight, narrow mountain roads (Toyota Troop Carriers and Hi-ace vans full of kids).

For More Information

  • Call Toby Bucek or Kay Weltz (Wollangarra Directors) to discuss the role further on 03 5148 0492
  • Written applications must include resume, cover letter and address key selection criteria. Send email applications to Toby and Kay via directors@wollangarra.org.au

This wonderful four minute video highlights some of what a year at Woll is like for our staff: