A Career in natural resource management and Aboriginal cultural heritage
"The natural environment has always fascinated me. However, I knew there was something missing from most
of the artwork I created and that was the people who lived in the environment and transformed it."
of the artwork I created and that was the people who lived in the environment and transformed it."
Typically reclusive in her natural character and reluctant to engage people, both personally and in her paintings, Pam made a transformative shift and returned to university to learn more about people.
Taking up subjects such as: Rock art field school; methods in archaeology; anthropological research techniques; medical anthropology; forensic archaeology; myth and ritual and an independent study on rock art images and Aboriginal naked eye astronomy. "I led myself back to environmental issues by investigating the impacts of sugar-cane farming on the Great Barrier Reef with an Honours thesis entitled, "Competing Understandings of the Impacts of Agricultural Activities on the Great Barrier Reef." Thus, following three years of intensive 'people' studies ended with a return to the landscape, scientific research and investigations to satisfy her own yearnings of sustainable farming. After all, Pam was living and working on a sugar-cane farm in one of the wettest parts of Australia at the time. There was much concern about how runoff was affecting the Great Barrier Reef and Pam needed to know if farming practices were causing this or was it something else or a combination of different land uses.
After a two-year break that included experiencing another severe tropical cyclone "Larry", Pam was offered a PhD scholarship in the School of Earth and Environmental Science at James Cook University, Cairns, in 2007. In 2011 Pam achieved a PhD through applied research investigating how sea- and tree-changes affect the locations they move to and why they move away with the title; Sea- and Tree-change Landscapes, Environmental Thresholds in the Wet Tropics, Far North Queensland, Australia."
While waiting for here results, Pam took on the position of Cultural Heritage Officer in Mt Isa with Southern Gulf Catchments.
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