Meet Our Rangers
Billabong Sanctuary has a core staff of full-time Rangers to
provide the best possible care for our native animal collection.
From diverse backgrounds, they are a incredibly talented and well-qualified mob, with a variety of practical skills as well as professional training. Each is passionate about working with wildlife and dedicated to the principles of conservation and education.
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Vince Toohey
Having grown up on a cane farm in the Burdekin (just south of here) Vince brings to Billabong Sanctuary wide-ranging knowledge of local native animals, with a particular interest in snakes and fish.
He graduated from James Cook University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Biology and Aquaculture.
Vince’s pet project here will be to design a barramundi pond by the cassowary enclosure to be stocked with large barra from a local fish farm.Billabong Sanctuary.
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Wil Kemp
Can you tell by the look in his eye that this bloke loves snakes? Ranger Wil has kept all kinds of snakes and other reptiles ever since he was a boy growing up in Rockhampton. This hobby led to a career as an animal keeper at the Rockhampton Zoo and at Cairns Tropical Zoo before he joined us as a Ranger.
Wil is studying for his Level III Certificate in Captive Animal Management with Brisbane North TAFE. Here at Billabong Sanctuary he is hoping to build on our reptile collection, and to further develop the Venomous Snake Shows.
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Jacques Casino
Jacques grew up in the Blue Mountains, about 3 hours west of Sydney. Perhaps inspired by his father’s prawn farms in the Philippines, he started keeping fish as a hobby from a very young age.
While at Southern Cross University in Lismore, he worked as an intern with Australian Seabird Rescue (www.seabirdrescue.org), caring for sick and injured birds and turtles.
His most dramatic rescue, he says, was the Pelican Dive—he leaped off a jetty to save a pelican that had a fish hook embedded in its throat. Happily, both bird and rescuer survived. It was experiences like this that made Jacques realize how much he really loved to care for animals.
After completing his Bachelor of Applied Science Degree, with a major in Fisheries and Aquaculture, Jacques decided he needed a change of scene, so he shifted his private menagerie of birds and fish up to Townsville. By happy chance, there was an opportunity right away for him to join the team here at Billabong Sanctuary . Jacques is looking forward to learning more about reptiles and mammals, and will be helping with all our wildlife shows throughout the day.
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Kirrily Douglas
Kirrily grew up in Longreach out in central Queensland, and has had a passion for animals ever since she could walk.
A wildlife carer for the past 10 years, she also has her own collection of venomous snakes at home. After high school Kirrily spent 2 ½ years at the Rockhampton Zoo, caring mainly for birds and dingoes.
During this time she also worked as an assistant puppy trainer and started work towards her TAFE Certificate III in Captive Animals.
Here at Billabong Sanctuary Kirrily will be working mainly behind the scenes, taking charge of all the food prep for our native animals. She will also be training the birds which take part in our daily Aussie Animal Experience.
Carina Svensson
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The journey from her home town to Billabong Sanctuary has been a long and fascinating one for Carina. She grew up in Sweden, in a houseful of parrots! Her father’s love for his budgies, cockatiels, love birds and red-lored Amazons inspired her own passion for tropical wildlife.
So she came all the way over to Rockhampton to do a degree in Biological Sciences at Central Queensland University. During this time Carina interned at Currumbin Sanctuary, helping the bird trainers, and also worked with sea turtles at nearby conservation parks.
After working back home in Sweden for a year, she and her partner set off on an around-the-world adventure. A highlight for Carina was fulfilling a childhood dream to work at Tambopata Research Centre in Peru. Here they spent 6 weeks doing volunteer survey work on several species of macaws at the famous clay licks. They also spent time in Costa Rica working with military macaws, and in Honduras working in iguana conservation.
As the year drew to a close, Carina got word that her application for permanent residency in Australia had been approved. This joyful news brought the couple to Townsville, and within a week Carina was accepted as a Ranger at Billabong Sanctuary.
Carina has already given her first koala show, and will be training to work with all our animals. She has fallen in love with Australian reptiles and eventually hopes to work with the venomous snakes. It has indeed been a long and exciting journey all the way from Sweden!
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Nick Petropoulos
Nick just can’t say enough good things about dingoes. They are his absolute passion- ask him anything and you will be bowled over by his infectious enthusiasm for these native dogs.
Nick grew up around animals, working during the holidays on his family’s sheep farm outside Melbourne. He didn’t start keeping his own native pets till he was 16 and was given a high school shop assignment to ‘build a storage container’. Well, Nick persuaded his teacher that a reptile tank was an appropriate project, and the next thing his mother knew, a ridge-tailed goanna was delivered to the front door. That was just the tip of the iceberg. Nick’s collection grew since then to fill a huge machine shed with birds, snakes, lizards, gliders and possums.
Since finishing high school Nick had been working with Black Snake Productions doing travelling reptile shows, while studying for his TAFE Certificate II in Animal Studies. He’s also done work experience at Healesville Sanctuary and at the Dingo Discovery Centre.
But as soon as he heard about a job opening at Billabong Sanctuary, Nick packed up everything he owns, plus his dog, snakes, birds and possums, and drove for 4 days to reach Townsville.
He’s in his dream job now, as our official dingo keeper and trainer—watch for his happy grin as he takes them on their morning walk round the park. He’s also helping Kirrily raise Tonka the wombat, helps care for our other native mammals, and shares that bubbly enthusiasm at all our daily animal shows.
Tara Reardon
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A native of the Whitsundays, Tara moved to Townsville after high school to enrol as one of the first cohort of veterinary students at James Cook University. After 1 ½ years in this programme, she changed her focus to zoology, graduating in 2009 with a Bachelor of Science degree.
A highlight of her time as a student was a JCU trip to the Danum Valley of Borneo, to assist with research on both fruit bats and insectivorous bats.
It was here that her love of these often misunderstood mammals was born . In Tara’s words, she seems to like all the animals that no one else like. A trained wildlife carer, she is raising orphaned fruit bats at home, and also keeps pet rats. Here at Billabong she has hand-raised Bert and Ernie, rainbow/scaly-breasted lorikeet hybrid chicks.
Tara helped us as a volunteer for several months before being hired as a Ranger. As well as being an all-rounder, doing daily feeding shows, Tara will be updating and marketing Billabong Education, promoting our programmes to regional schools.
Above all, she would like to teach people that fruit bats should be protected, not reviled.
Honorary Ranger - Sheila Brunskill
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Sheila is a local resident living on acreage with her husband Gregg at
nearby Alligator Creek with an abundance of wildlife visitors to her
backyard, some being hand-reared and then released by Sheila into the wild,
but returning on a regular basis.
Billabong Sanctuary has been most fortunate to benefit from Sheila's passion
for Australian wildlife as she is our longest serving staff member, although
in an honorary capacity. Sheila loves Billabong's philosophy of introducing
local children to Aussie animals and providing an introduction to
International visitors to Australia's unique fauna - where to see them in
the wild and help in their conservation through our Billabong message.
The stories and updates you read on the Billabong website on births,
acquisitions of fauna, introducing new staff members, coming events such as
school holiday programmes are all sourced by Sheila after consulting with
Billabong staff.
Billabong management utilize Sheila's love of the Sanctuary as a sounding
board, as she is very close to issues which make the Billabong a unique eco
based attraction.
Fantastic tour guide and shows. Couldn’t ask for any better, thanks – Janai Trotter, Melbourne We love Ranger Dan – Col and Dan Haynes, NSW |